RELIGION WITHOUT CANT: 



O R, 



A PRESERVATIVE 



AGAINST 



LUKEWARMNESS AND INTOLERANCE; 



FANATICISM, SUPERSTITION, AND IMPIETY. 



By ROBERT FELLOWES, A. M. 

OF ST. MARY HALL, OXFORD, 
Atfthor of A Pifture of Chriftian Philofophy, &c. &c 




(t Haec confcius mihl fum non dicere me cujufquam odlo, fed, in tanto et 
tarn praefenti periculo, neminem arbitror effe debere ceffatorem." 

Grot. vot. pro Pac. 

" Hoftis non fum, nifl eorum dogmatum, quae credo noxia aut pietati aut 
focietati humanae." Ibid. 

" That is not truth that loves changes; and the new-nothings of fchifmaticai 
preachers are infinitely far from the bleflings of truth." 

Jer. Taylor, Supplem. Serm. 



LONDON: 

FRINTED FOR J. WHITE, FLEET-STREET. 

1801. 






<f 



«; 



If the caufe of politic affairs cannot, in any good fort, go 
forward without fit Inftruments, and that which fitteth 
them be their Virtues, let Polity acknowledge itfelf in- 
debted to Religion j Godlinefs being the chiefefl top and 
wellrfpring of all true virtues, even as God is of all good 
things. So natural is the union of Religion with Juftice, 
that we may boldly deem there is neither where both are 
not. For how fhould they be unfeignedly juft whom Reli- 
gion doth not caufe to be fuch j or they religious, which are 
not found fuch by the proof of their juft actions?" 

Hooker Eccl. Pol. B. v, 
Superftition neither knoweth the right kind, nor obferveth 
the due meafare of actions belonging to the Service of God, 
but is always joined with a wrong opinion touching things 
divine." Ibid, 



T. Benfley, Printer, Bolt Court, Fleet Street, London* 



PREFACE. 



Every friend to genuine Chriftianity muft 
lament the errors in which it is bewildered, 
and the corruptions by which it is oppreffed. 
The beft gifts of heaven are capable of the 
greateft abufe ; and they are often the mofl 
abufed. Reafon was given us to diftinguifh 
right from wrong; to be the rule of a£tioii 
and the guide of life : yet, by fome, this glo- 
rious faculty is hardly exercifed at all ; and, 
by others, it is employed only to do mifchief. 
Some ufe it rather to perplex than to unravel 
truth ; and to make that intricate which God 
made plain. Revelation, which was defigned 
as a beneficent auxiliary to human reafon, and 
to afford full and fatisfadtory information on 
the dark and doubtful queftion of a future 

a 2 



( * ) 

life, — a topic of inquiry, on which the ut- 
moft ftretch of the intelle&ual powers of man 
could not advance beyond fome faint analogy 
or fome plaufible conje£ture, has, by the 
fceptical, been deemed an enemy to reafon ; 
and fome of the faithful have fuppofed 
reafon an enemy to it. Thus while fome 
have imagined that a beleif in revelation fet- 
tered the free ufe of the rational faculties, 
others have thought that the free ufe of the 
rational faculties was inimical to the interefts 
of revelation. 

There is a fort of fpurious Chriftianity, a 
ftrange mixture of credulity and impofture, 
of ignorance that moves comoaffion, and of 
hypocrify that excites abhorrence, in which 
faith is commended more than goodnefs, and 
common fenfe is loft fight of in the purfuit 
of myftery ; which has feldom wanted advo- 
cates in the Chriftian world ; and which has 
lately found numerous admirers in our own 
country. This undefigning perverfion or 



( v ) 

fyftematic depravation of the Chriftian doc- 
trine it is, in a great meafure, the defign of 
the prefent work to counteract ; and, if pof- 
lible, to refcue the religion of the bleffed 
Jeius from a multitude of corruptions by 
which its ufefulnefs is diminifhed and its 

glory is obfcured. What are called the 

doclrines of Chriftianity have been wilfully 
perverted and grofsly mifunderflood. Con- 
ftru£tions have been put upon them, which 
are not more contrary to reafon than to fcrip- 
ture ; and equally adverfe to the honour of 
God and to the happinefs of mankind. Of 
thofe doflrines, which relate to the fall 9 
faith, the new birth , divine grace, and which 
have often been made fubfervient to the word 
of purpofes, I have endeavoured to give a 
plain, a fcriptural and rational explanation. 
Of that abfurd and unfcriptural fiftion called 
" Original Sin," which, fince the time of St. 
Auftin, has been reprefented by vifionaries, 
fanatics, and impoftors, as the moft important 
and falutary conftituent of vital Chriflianity, 

a 3 



( vi ) 

I have fpared no pains to refute the error and 
to expofe the abfurdity ; and I have employed 
the mere time on this fubje£t, becaufe I am 
convinced that it will be found the root of 
numberlefs corruptions. If, in fpeaking on 
this dodrine, I have ufed warmer language 
than men of a colder temperament may ap- 
prove, my only apology is. that fuch language 
is the language of my heart. I could not 
well have employed different expreffions, 
without doing violence to my confeience as 
well as to my feelings ; to my reverence for 
God and to my love for mankind. When 
the obligations of truth, of juflice and of 
mercy are openly reviled or infidioufly under- 
mined, I mould be totally unworthy of the 
profeffion which I have embraced, if I did 
not ftand forth their ftrenuous and fearlefs 
advocate. Their interests are the interefts 
of men at all times and in all places ; and, 
in proportion as the general refpedt for 
them is relaxed, mifery will overfpread the 
world. 



. 



( viI ) 

Many are the caufes, which, at the prefent 
day, confpire to favour the increafe of vice 
and to promote the decay of virtue. Moral 
principle is not entirely, but is, in fome degree, 
the offspring of favourable circumftances ; and 
certain it is that all circumftances are not 
equally propitious to its culture or its growth. 
In fome, it may be reared with lefs labour 
than in others ; but the depreffion of extreme 
want feems to oppofe almoft infuperable ob- 
stacles to its production *. 

* The poffeflion of property generates ideas very conge- 
nial to the obligations of juftice. It ftrengthens the fenfe 
of their importance by the weighty perfuafions of felf in- 
tereft. The moment we become proprietors of any thing, 
we begin to experience fome diftincvt fenfations of the right 
of mine and thine ; fome definite notions of what is due to 
ourfelves and to others ; and what is juftice but a practical 
regard for the rights of others? The fenfe of juftice feems 
ftrongeft in thofe, who, having property, know that its 
fecurity depends on the fame fenfe of juftice in others. 
When we have no property to protect, we have little need 
of a fenfe of juftice in others ; and our own fenfe of juftice 
becomes proportionally faint. To thofe, in whom we 
wifti to excite a vigorous fenfe of juftice, we ought to com- 
municate property, which makes them feel a direct and 
palpable intereft in the obligations of honefty. In propor^ 

a 4 



( viii ) 

Difficult, indeed, will it be found to pro- 
mote religions truft and moral integrity 
among thofe, who, going out every morning 
to their work and returning home at night 

tion as property gets into fewer hands, and a greater num- 
ber, from being deprived of its pofTeflion or precluded from 
its attainment, feel no perfonal intereft in the prefei vation 
of its rights, it is probable that integrity will decline and 
roguery increafe. 

The fpirit of the poor is broken and made abjeiSr. when 
they are deprived of the means of bettering their condition. 
They then look on induftry as vain, and frugality as hope- 
lefs ; and they become idle, if not from a fenfe of intereft, 
at leaft, often from feelings of fpite and revenge, of which 
the gratification in vulgar minds often pafles for intereft. 
They fee themfelves prevented from rifmg above the. level 
of their condition ; and they aimoft fpontaneouily labour 
to fall as low in the fink ot penury as poflible, in order to 
prefs with the greateft prilible weight on their rich fupe- 
riors. They coniider the great monopolizing tenants of 
the foil as their natural enemies ; they regard them with 
rancour ; and, as far as they have the power, they purfue 
them with hoftility. They feel their circumftances aimoft 
as defperate as if they were in a ftate of vaffalage ; and 
they endeavour to make others as well as themfelves feel 
the mileries of their dependance. In. this ftate of moral 
degradation and of phyfical fuffenng, their fentiments be- 
come depraved and their hearts unfeeling. Every fympa- 
thy, which could difpofe them to benevolence, becomes 
gradually extinguished ; and they grow weak in intellect 
and favage in difpoiitioir. 



( m ) 

weary with toil, find that all their induftry 
can furmfh only a fcanty meal for themfelves, 
their wives and their little ones ; a meal quite 
inadequate to the demands of exhaufted na- 
ture, and barely fufficient to maintain the 
dreary vacuity of exiftence ! Difficult indeed 
will it be found to perfuade fuch perfons that 
they can have any intereft in a conftant ad- 
herence to the obligations of truth, of juftice, 
and of mercy ! Great phyfical want, whofe 
force on the mind is ftronger than any argu- 
ments which you can apply, or any perfua- 
fions which you can uie, will fruftrate all 
your endeavours ; and render all your in- 
ftru£tions as vain as addrefles to the winds 
or to the waves. . You, perhaps, fpeak to 
one, whofe hungry ftomach, whofe w 7 an and 
faded countenance, whofe emaciated and fee- 
ble frame tell him, that he has no fenfible, 
no immediate intereft in the pra&ice of thofe 
virtues, which it is moil: the duty of the 
preacher to inculcate ; and though you may 
remind him of a day of retribution and a fu- 
ture life, yet he will fay, and, if he fay not, * 



( X ) 

he will think, that that day is remote and 
that life uncertain ! How few, how very- 
few are thofe, who do not live more by fight 
than by faith ! and the poor, whofe rational 
faculties have been little cultivated and who 
cannot meafure intereft by a calculation of 
probabilities, are always governed more by 
fenfation than by reafon. To combat fenfa- 
tion, and, particularly, the fenfation of hun- 
ger and thirft, of cold and nakednefs, by 
abftract reafoning or barren generalities ; to 
prove the fitnefs of what is by the probable 
but uncertain flatement of what will be ; 
mud:, in mod cafes, be found an unavailing 
and fruitlefs talk. Thofe perfons, therefore, 
who are anxious to bring about a moral reform 
among the poor, fhould endeavour to lay the 
foundation of it in a phyfical alleviation of 
their wants, and in a fenfible diminution of 
their fufFerings *. 

* May I hope that, during the adminiftration of Mr. 
Addington, who appears to poffefs no {mail portion of goocj 
fenfe and a very large one of benevolence, fome falutaiy 
plan for the relief of the poor will not; only be debated bu$ 
carried into efFedt ! 



( xi ) ' 

Religion ufually flourifhes moil: where 
there is the ftrongeft difpofition to thankful- 
nefs ; but great want certainly takes away 
the motive and leffens the willingnefs to be 
thankful. Gratitude will not live long with- 
out aliment. Can any religious man, who 
knows himfelf, and is fuperior to diffimula- 
tion, affert that he does not feel a ftronger 
inclination to be thankful, to love God and tp 
do good to his fellow-creatures after a refrefh- 
ing meal than on an hungry ftomach ? We 
naturally love to communicate our feelings to 
others ; in happinefs and in mifery we want 
fympathy : it increafes our blifs and dimi- 
nifhes our fuffering. When we are in pain, 
our affliction is foothed by any artlefs expref- 
fions of forrow, which we can trace in the 
manner or the features of thofe around us, 
A fort of calm but bland and fweet affe&ion 
gets pofleffion of our bofoms ; and which 
fufpends the adlion or leflbns the preffure of 
pur woe. Again, when our own feelings are 
pkafurable, when our nerves thrill with joy 



( xii ) 

and our hearts beat with gladnefs, we are 
ufually confcious of a ftronger defire to im- 
part good than in a colder or lefs agreeable 
ftate of the fenfations. 

Though the prefent increafing luxury in 
one part of the community, with the iri- 
creafed and increafing diftrefs in another, do 
greatly favour the corruption of public mo- 
rals, . I think that another very vigorous and 
adtive caufe of the declenfion of virtue and 
the increafe of vice will be found in thofe 
polluted, unreafonable, and abfurd reprefenta- 
tions of the Chriilian religion, which have, of 
late years, been with too little confideration 
patronifed by the great, and with too much 
facility liftened to by the populace. Of thofe 
perfons, who ever think ferioufly of going to 
heaven, the majority would fain travel thither 
in company with that guide who requires 
the feweft facrifices at their hands ; who 
orders the leaft felf- denial and permits the 
greatefl felf-indulgence. Thus they are pre- 



( xiii ) 

difpofed to lend a willing ear to the inftruo 
tions of any religious juggler who endeavours 
to perfuade them, that faith without holinefs, 
grace without exertion, or righteoufnefs by 
imputation will fuperfede the neeefiity of 
perftnal goodnefs, and exempt the favoured 
convert from the painful toils of practical 
morality. Such admonitions, coloured over 
with a great deal of cant, in order to difguife 
the rottennefs of the ingredients and the un- 
wholefomenefs of the mixture, have been 
called " Evangelical Preaching?' and, at 
other times, emphatically " Preaching the 
Go/pel ;" and the great and everlafting prin- 
ciples of moral duty have been fhamelefsly 
libelled, and moll induftrioufly lowered m 
the public eftimation, by men profeffing to 
teach the holy do&rine of the holy Jefus. 

The attempts which have been made, of late 
years, to bring what has been too contemptu- 
oufly termed " moral preaching" into difre- 
pute, are too notorious to be forgotten, and 



( xiv ) 

too deftru&ive of national virtue not to be 
mentioned with abhorrence. That kind of 
preaching which has been called moral, and 
which confiders Chriftianity more as a rule of 
life than a bone of contention, prevailed al- 
moft univerfally among the clergy in this 
country from the restoration, till beyond the 
middle of that century which we have lately 
feen brought to a conclufion ; and I fhould 
be happy to learn from the prefent numerous 
venders of what is called Evangelical Chrif- 
tianity, in what period of this country, truth, 
juftice, and charity, were more refpected by 
the great mafs of the people, or when the 
moral principle operated with more ftrength 
and more fuccefs than when this mode of 
religious inftru&ion, which it is now the 
fafliion to decry, was fo generally approved ? 
To difcourage moral preaching is to blaf- 
pheme morality. It is to make truth, juftice, 
and mercy, appear bafe and worthlefs. It is 
to degrade them ill the opinions of mankind. 
It is, befides, to deny Chrift ; it is to vilify his 



( ** ) 

authority, and to deride his inftru&ions ; for, 
what did Chrift inculcate more than pradtical 
goodnefs ? more than pure and genuine and 
unfophifticated morality ? If Chrift himfelf, 
who ought to be unto the minifters of his 
religion not more a pattern for the lives which 
they lead than for the doctrines which they 
teach, preached nothing more than practical 
goodnefs, or the doing of good, what did he in- 
culcate more than moral duty ? For, is it not 
the perfection of moral duty to be zealous in 
doing good ? Thofe perfons, therefore, who 
feoff at moral preaching, and vilify meral 
preachers , are enemies to goodnefs, and to 
thofe who labour to promote the doing of 
good. All preaching, which does not gravi- 
tate towards moral duty, which does not 
make the diminution of moral evil and the 
increafe of moral good its obje£t and its end, 
its primary and its ultimate confederation, is 
unchriftian, unfcriptural, and profane. It is 
diametrically oppofite to the dodlrine of Chrift 
and to the genius of Chriftianity, The reli- 



( xvi ) 

gious, or rather the irreligious temper of the 
times, and the mifchievous and abfurd opi- 
nions that are afloat in the world, require 
that I fhould deliver my fentiments plainly 
and fearlelsiy on this important fubjedh It 
is full time that I fhould defend myfelf and 
many others, my friends and fellow-labourers 
in the church of England, from the flanderous 
afperfions with which we have been affailed 
by wicked men, who are marring rational 
Chriftianity by their irrational glofles, while 
they are endeavouring to opprefs its advocates 
by the moft malicious calumnies. Surprifed 
I am that fo many of the Anti-Calviniftic and 
Anti-Methodiftic part of the Englifh clergy 
have fo long been filent under the heavy 
charges which have been adduced a°;ainft 
them of not preaching the gofpel ; becaufe 
they ufually felecl for the topics of religious 
inftrudtion thofe everlafling moral duties 
which the gofpel inculcates more than any 
thing elfe. I truft that thofe perfons, who, 
under the pompous title of Evangelical 

3 



( xv *i ) 

Preachers, are decrying moral duties, fubfti- 
tuting myftic rhapfodies for common fenfe, 
and an adulterate for genuine piety, are fo far 
from deferving the high praife which they 
claim of preaching the gofpel of Chrift, that 
they rather deferve to be reprobated as the 
fervants of unrighteoufnefs. For my own 
part, no referve fhall ever withhold me from 
faying that I abhor fuch preaching, and that I 
can never efteem fuch preachers ; for con- 
scious I am that no fmall part of the moral 
corruption at prefent exifting among us, and 
which every one, who loves his country, 
muft contemplate with difmay, muft be at- 
tributed to the practice which is at prefent 
too general among Chriftian teachers of rant- 
ing with obftreperous violence about the doc- 
trines, while they obferve an inviolable filence 
about the duties of Chriftianity *. 

* The prefent times, which teem with great events and 
awful changes, demand an increafed vigilance and activity 
on the part of the minifters of the eftablifhment. A man 
that is at eafe ufually lies (till and fleeps found, while an- 
other that is in pain keeps turning from fide to fide and 

b 



( xviii ) 

On the motives to and the criterion of moral 
a&ion, which I have occafionally mentioned in 
the progrefs of this work, I may, perhaps, differ 
from fome writers of great celebrity. Utility 
is by many confidered as the only criterion of 
virtue. Now, though an heathen or an in- 
fidel may, in the blindnefs of their minds or 
in the hardnefs of their hearts, confider utility 
as the fole teft of virtuous action ; I think 
that a Ghriftian may appreciate virtue by a 
ted, which is lefs fallible and precarious, lefs 
liable to be productive of error or of mifery. 
By a believer in Chriftianity the will of God 
as. declared in .the layings of Chrift ought to 

finds no reir. In efiablifhmcnts which may for the moil 
part be confidered as bodies at eafe, there is at fome periods 
a certain ' c vis inertise ;" a gravitating tendency to quief- 
cence, but which roufes in their opponents all the energies 
of action. The activity of thofe who are inimical to our 
religious institutions is flimulated by intereited expectation, 
and all the malevolent paffions rufti in to increafe the flame. 
But, whatever may be the zeal of their enemies, it mud 
be confeffed that many, very many of the clergy have, of 
late, difplayed no ordinary vigour and ability in the defence 
of Christianity againlt unbelievers and of the eftabliihment 
again ft Sectaries. 



( xix ) 

be considered as the fovereign criterion of 
moral a6tion ; for, if he adopt any other, he 
will often be in danger of violating- the will 
of God, as it has been proclaimed in the 
•Chriftian revelation. 

If we confider utility, or, as an elaborate 
writer, whofe paradoxes have often excited 
fo much furprife and afforded fuch ample 
materials for controverfy and for ridicule, has 
called it in other words a preponderance of 
general good and an overbalance of pleafur- 
able Jenfation^ to be the only teft of virtue, 
what reftraint do we lay on the fecret 
thoughts and intentions of the heart, which 
are as fufceptible of the relations of vice and 
virtue as our outward adtions ? How is uti- 
lity violated by indulging a fecret wi(h to 
feduce your friend's daughter or to fleep with 
your neighbour's wife ? Yet there is no 
doubt that, confidering the true criterion of 
virtue to be a conformity of the inward 
thoughts as well as the outward actions to 

b 2 



( ™ ) 

the will of God, fuch wifhes are heinous 
violations of morality. Indeed cafes might 
be adduced, in which the moft nefarious ads 
of falfehood and injuftice, in which the com- 
miflion of adultery and even murder, might 
be quite confonant to the principle of utility ; 
or, in which thefe crimes might produce a 
general overbalance of pleafurable fenfation ; 
and, confequently, every enormity, at the 
very thought of which our nature fhudders 
and our blood runs cold, might thus, in par- 
. ticular inftances, be reputed virtuous. Such 
are the errors into which we might be led by 
adopting this very unfafe and very unfcriptural 
criterion of morality. Obedience to the will 
of God, which, according to my notions as a 
Chriftian philofopher, is the only genuine 
criterion of virtue, may, in particular cafes, 
be productive of an overbalance of prefent 
evil to the individual and perhaps to fociety ; 
but prefent good or prefent evil, which are 
inconfiderable in quantity and fhort in dura- 
tion, are not fo much to be confidered as that 



( xxi ) 

greater future good which is to be revealed. 
The Chriftian feels the force of this queftion; 
" what Jhall it profit a man to gain the whole 
world and lofe his own foul V 

If we make utility or " a general over- 
balance of pleafurable fenfation" the only teft 
of virtue, we (hall foon denominate many 
adtions to be virtuous which are contrary, 
and many to be vicious which are agreeable 
to, the will of God. There can be no doubt 
but that, in the majority of inftances, virtue 
is productive of a preponderance of prefent 
good and prefent pleafure to the individual 
and to fociety; but there are many particular 
cafes in which, as Chriftians, we are exprefsly 
commanded to facriflce the good which is 
prefent for that which is future, to forego 
pleafurable fenfation in this world for glory 
and happinefs in the next. To his fir ft fol~ 
lowers, Jefus faid, " Whofoever he be, that 
forfaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be 
my difciple." To his followers in all coun- 

b 3 



( xxii ) 

tries and all ages he exclaims, " He that 
loveth father or mother better than me, is not 
worthy of me." " If thy right eye caufe 
thee to offend, pluck it out, and caft it from 
thee ; for it is better for thee, that one of thy 
members perifh, than that thy whole body 
fhould be caft into hell." 

If moral aftion were, in all cafes, produc- 
tive of an overbalance of temporal good or 
pleafurable fenfation, who would be fo unwife 
as to offend ? What influences the conduct 
of men fo much as prejent good or prefent 
pleafure * ? But Chriftianity never makes 
either prefent good or prefent pleafure the 

right motive to or the right criterion of Vir- 
es o 

tuous action ; but, without the leaft allure- 
ment of any good or pleafure to be expe- 
rienced in this world, it uniformly and in- 

* When I ufe the words prefent good or prefent pleafure 
in this preface, I do not always mean that good or that 
pleafure which may be immediately confequent on any ac- 
tion, but any good or pleafure, which are confined within 
and not extended beyond the boundaries of this mortal life. 



( xxiii ) 

flexibly enjoins obedience to the will of him, 
whofe fervants we are, whofe fayings we are 
to obferve, and whofe example we are to imi- 
tate, I do not, indeed, fay that in all cafes 
a Chriflian will refufe to aft before he confi- 
ders what is the will of God, for, in the buftle 
of the world, time will not always be found 
fufficient for fuch deliberation ; nor, in the 
common affairs of life, will fuch deliberation 
be often neceffary ; for, when the love of 
God or the fpirit of Chriftian charity, which 
is the perfection of Chriftian virtue, has ac- 
quired a due afcendancy in the foul^ a man's 
general conduft in the little detail as well as 
the great tranfaftions of life, cannot but be 
conformable to the will of God; and what- 
ever may be the complexity of human mo- 
tives, all virtuous action muft, at laft, be re- 
folved into conformity to the will of God. 
Chriftianity allows no other criterion of vir- 
tue ; and thofe who profefs themfelves Chris- 
tians, only labour in vain to difcover any other 
in fome barren abftra&ion or forae vague and 

b 4 



( xxiv ) 

indeterminate principle, when they have a 
very plain and definite rule of right placed 
before them in the fayings of Chrift ; to 
which all the wifdom of the greateft among 
antient or modern fages will be found but vain 
babble and fruitlefs fpeculation. 

An eafy and fafe and praftical rule of vir^ 
tue, which individuals may readily confult 
with refpecT: to their condudt towards others, 
is that recommended by our Saviour; " whatr 
foever ye would that men fhould do to you 
do ye even fo to them." He who, on any 
particular occafion, feels that he has done to 
another, what he could not reafouably judge 
right to be done to himfelf in the like circum- 
ftances, may be convinced, that he has a£led 
wrong, and done what is not virtuous. Let 
any individual apply this rule as a ftandard for 
any part of his behaviour towards his fellovv- 
creatures and he will find it invariably juft. 
If I have told a lie to my neighbour, if I have 
defrauded him in any matter, I cannot cer- 



( xxv ) 

tainly compare my conduct with this rule 
without condemning myfelf. With refpe£t, 
therefore, to the judgments which we ought 
reafonably to pafs on our own conduit towards 
others, this faying of the Chriftian lawgiver, 
" whatfoever ye would, &c." will, I think, 
conftitute an uniformly and perfectly juft cri- 
terion of virtue ; but, perhaps, we cannot fo 
invariably apply it to appreciate the conduct 
of others towards ourfelves ; for ignorance of 
their circumftances and of the intentions in 
their hearts, may caufe their conduct to be. 
differently modified towards us than we may 
think that it ought to have been, or than we 
feel that this maxim " whatfoever, &c." will 
approve. 

If we do that to others, which we mould 
think it unfair and unreafonable that others 
mould do to us in the like circumftances, we 
condemn ourfelves; we wilfully commit a 
vicious aftion. But, others may poffibly do 
to us what we mould condemn ourfelves for 



( >*vi ) 

doing to them, and yet not offend againit this 
criterion of virtue; for many little circum- 
ftances which do not come under our cog^ni- 
zance, or the contemplation of things under 
different relations from what we do, may 
caufe their fenfations of rectitude in this par- 
ticular cafe to be different from our own ; 
and may thus induce them to approve what 
we condemn. In judging the conduct of 
others we cannot fafely decide on their merit 
or demerit, by the varying teft of our own 
fenfations. 

But though this teft of virtue " whatfo- 
ever ye would, &c." may fometimes prove 
erroneous in its application to the conduct of 
others, it would be found ftrictly true and 
juft in all cafes, if we could reciprocally ex- 
change lituations and fenfations. Thus, if a 
perfon in need a(k me for a loaf of bread, 
which I may have it in my power to give, 
he may deem the refufal of his requeft a vio- 
lation of this rule, " whatfoever ye would, 

7 



( xxvii ) 

&c ;" but it may happen, that I could not 
comply with the petition, without doing an 
injury to thofe more near to me or more dear 
to me ; and who have a reafonable claim to 
preference in my regard. I may not, for in- 
ftance, be able to fatisfy this perfon's hunger, 
without caufing hunger in my own family. 
In theTe circumftances let the perfon, who 
folicits the benefa&ion and he of whom it is 
folicited for a moment change places ; and 
then the former may not only fee but feel 
that I do not offend asrainft the great Chrif- 
tian law by not granting his petition. Thus 
if people would for a moment reciprocally 
endeavour to identify themfelves as it were 
with each other's circumftances and fenfa- 
tions, this rule might become a very jufl: 
criterion *, by which to eftimate not only 

* I cannot help, in this place, intruding on the atten- 
tion of the reader a remark, which forcibly flrikes me at 
this moment, that this rule of doing to others whatfoever 
we would that they mould do to us, which our Lord fo 
folemnly enjoins and fo forcibly applauds, as containing 
the fubftance of the law and the prophets, proves in a moil; 



( xxviii ) 

their own goodnefs but the goodnefs of their 
fellow-creatures. 



As man is made for immortality, and as the 
greateft good which he can enjoy in this life 
is fo fmall in degree and fo fhort in duration, 

fatisfactory manner, that he did not aflent to the modern 
do&rine of the original and radical corruption of human 
nature ; for the precept itfelf could not be correct and 
would not ferve as a rule of action, nor would fo much 
flrefs have been laid on it, if our feelings themfelves did 
not atteji the obligations and ratify the prafticc of morality, 
Jefus, therefore, evidently fuppofes our frame to contain in 
iome meafure within itfelf the rule of virtuous action ; our 
fenfations to bear teftimony to moral rectitude, and to 
argue forcibly in favour of truth, juftice, and mercy. By 
thus fuppofing a rule of virtuous action in the human con- 
ftitution, he evidently intimates that the principle of virtue 
is a predominant ingredient in the nature of man, and that 
virtue itfelf is enthroned by the appointment of God, not 
only in the outer courts but in the inmoft fancluary of the 
heart. This inference may to fome appear far-fetched ; 
but thofe, who, not contented with a fuperficial view of 
things, have a capacity for profound inveftigation, will, J 
truft, agree with me that this injunction of our Lord, 
whatfocver, &c includes the flrongeit, the mod rational, 
and to agehuine Chriftian the mod convincing arguments 
that can be adduced againft the dodtrine of original fin ; — 
the fource of fo much abfurdity, fo much vice, and fqi 
much mifcry ! 



( xxix ) 

that it is nothing when compared with the 
eternal good which is to be revealed, it is 
plain that Chriftians who believe that an 
eternal reward is referved for the righteous, 
ought to regulate their condudl more by the 
confiderations of the future than of the pre- 
fent. The injunctions of Chrift and his apof- 
tles evidently tend to deter us from fin by the 
fear of future torments ; and they incite us 
to righteoufnefs by the affurance of an eternal 
recompenfe. They threaten the finner with 
the outer darknefs, where there is weeping 
and gnajhing of teeth ; and they animate the 
juft by the promife of an eternal weight of 
glory. Chriftianity therefore certainly de- 
rives our primary motives to virtuous action 
from the interefts of eternity. Virtuous ac- 
tion will, indeed, in the majority of cafes, be 
found productive of prefent good * ; but cafes 
may and fometimes will occur, in which it 
may be productive of prefent evil. On thefe 

* My ufe of the word prefent has been already noticed 
above, 



( XXX ) 

occafions, if a man were virtuous only from 
the hope of, or with a view to prefent <nx)d, 
or in the expectation of an overbalance of 
pleafure to accrue to himfelf or to others in 
this mortal life, he might perhaps, at laft, 
find virtue, like Brutus, unfatisfactory ; and, 
in the emotions of his impatience, be ready to 
arraign the moral government of God. 

If we confider virtuous conduct as relative 
to our future good, virtue will, when beheld 
under this afpect, be found in all cafes our 
greater! poffible good ; and, as in the majority 
of cafes, our real prefent and our eternal hap- 
pinefs will be found clofely connected, and, 
as the fame virtue, which always tends to the 
acquisition of the laft will be found, in mofi 
inflances, to promote the firft, virtue oil be 
deemed our greateft good viewed only in its 
relations to this fliort life; and, in thofe cafes, 
in which the rigid performance of our duty 
may expofe us to any temporal inconvenience 
or diftrefs, that inconvenience and diftrefs 



( xxxi ) 

will be endured with patierice by him> who 
places his truft in the promifes of Chriftianity. 

The great perfection of Chriftian virtue is 
to keep the fayings of Chrift, to be temperate, 
juft, beneficent, in oppofition to our prefent 
profit or prefent pleafure. We are placed in 
circumftances, in which fuch a dereli£tion of 
prefent for future good will be occafionally 
demanded of us. If temporal pleafure or pro- 
fit were the conjlant concomitant of virtuous 
action, the obligations of virtue would be 
performed with as little difficulty as any of 
the animal .functions:- We (hou Id follow after 
truth, juftice, and -charity, with as little re- 
luctance as we eat when we are hungry or 
drink when we are dry. But the primary mo- 
tive to virtuous a£tion, which Chriftianity ap- 
proves, is the defire of and the truft in that 
everlafting good which Chrift has promifed 
to thofe who keep his fayings; and we may 
find fecondary motives in that prefent good, 
that fatisfaftion and felf- complacency, that 



( xxxii ) 

peace of confcience and joy of heart, of which 
perfeverance in virtuous a&ion feldom fails to 
be produ&ive. We are to feek Jirfl the king- 
dom of God and his righteoufnefs ; and then, 
humbly to hope, that if we ufe our beft en- 
deavours to acquire a moral fitnefs for the 
poffeffion, our heavenly Father will not fail 
to give us a competent fhare of thofe other 
good things which are fuited to our nature ; 
which we have faculties to ufe and a capacity 
to enjoy. 

It has been fajd, that the general conduit 
even of Chriitians is very little influenced by 
the rewards and punishments of another life. 
The general conducl of men is, indeed, the 
refult of habit ; but what is habit but a repe- 
tition of the fame fenfations and defires, the 
fame thoughts and actions ? When, there- 
fore, a man praftifes any particular duty of 
temperance, truth, juftice, or charity, his 
conduit may, in this particular inftance, be 
the refult of fome paft affociation of ideas, 



( xxxiii ) 

and not impelled by any motives, taken im- 
mediately from the interefts of eternity. 
This is very true; but, then, the habit of 
temperance, of truth, or juftice, or charity, 
being only the aggregate of many fucceffive 
individual acts of temperance, truth, juftice* 
or charity, if the actions which conftituted 
the firft link in the chain of habit originated 
in religious motives, the motives which laid 
the foundation of the habit, may be reputed 
the caufe of the fubfequent conduct ; and as 
they produced the actions in the firft link of 
the chain, they may be fuppofed operative in 
thofe which conftitute the laft. But I am 
inclined to think, that the more Chriftians 
reflect on the nature of the good which is 
about to be revealed, and the greatnefs of the 
reward which is laid up for the righteous, 
the more firm pofleffion will the happinefs of 
another life take of their thoughts and fenfa*- 
tions, their minds and affections ; the more it 
will engrofs their attention ; the more it will 
influence their conduct: ; and, confequeatly, 

c 



( xxxiv ) 

the more thofe individual acts which confti- 
tute the habit of temperance, of truth, of 
juftice, or charity are repeated, the more 
they will be influenced by thofe motives 
which are taken from the interefts of eter- 
nity. Every fucceeding action will not only 
borrow force from the preceding, but will be 
more vigoroufly influenced by the motive 
which produced the act that went before it. 
Thus the ftrongeft motive to virtue, by 
which a true follower of Chrift will be di- 
rected, is his greateft pofiible good ; and that 
conjidered more with a view to the future than 
the prejent) to eternity than to time. 

If we adopt that criterion of virtue which 
I have defended, becaufe it appears to me 
moft accordant with the genius of Chrif- 
tianity and with the fandtions of its heavenly 
founder, we (hall not try the morality of 
actions by the degree of their utility, or by any 
general overbalance of pie of ur able jcnfaiion, 
accruing to the agent or to fociety, but by 
i 



( XXXV ) 

the degree of their conformity to the will of 
God, as it has been made known to us in the 
Chriftiau difpenfation. Chnftians are, in ge- 
neral, too lax in their notions of moral obli-^ 
gation. They direct the attention to a falfe 
teft of moral duty. They do not adhere with 
fufficient conftancy to this all-important doc* 
trine that 7noral aclion is a Jlrit~l conformity of 
the heart and mind, of the thoughts, the affec- 
tions, and the whole conduSi to the will of God. 

Morality may be proved to be the will of 
God by various inductions of reafon, and to 
which recourfe may be had in order to eluci- 
date or to fhengthen the authoritative in- 
junctions of revelation. It may be proved to 
be the will of God, by the order of the moral 
world, in which phyfical is made the correc- 
tive of moral evil ; by the nice and curious 
adaptation which there is in good nets to pro- 
duce happinefs ; by the fitnefs which there 
is in temperance, truth, juftice, and charity, 
to promote the good of the individual and the 

c % 



( xxxvi ) 

well-being of fociety -, by the wonderful and 
univerfal congruity which there is between 
truth and juftice, and the natural unvitiated 
fentiments of mankind ; by the prefent unea- 
finefs and the trembling apprehenfion of thofe 
who do evil ; and by the prefent fatisfadtion 
and the joyful hope of thofe who do good ; 
even in countries where revelation is un- 
known. Thefe confiderations, which natu- 
ral reafon will fuggeft, may be adduced to 
prove that morality is the will of God ; but a 
Chriftian is not fo much to inculcate moral 
action becaufe it is required by the fitnefs of 
things, becaufe it is agreeable to the natural 
fentiments, to the common fenfe and the 
common feelings of mankind, as becaufe it 
is confonant to the will of God, and com- 
manded in the gofpel of his Son ; without 
obedience to which we fhall perifli ever- 
laftingly. On this as well as other points 
I have without any equivocation or difguife 
laid before the reader the fober conviction of 
my reafon and the warm perfuafion of my 



( xxxvii ) 

heart ; and though I hope that I have never 
treated with fcorn, I truft that I have never 
copied with fervility, the opinions of any 
writer, whether antient or modern, whether 
among the living or the dead. 

Chriftian divines often miftake through 
ignorance, or miftate through prejudice, the 
true meafures of Chriftian piety. They do 
not fufficiently call the attention of tf\e 
young, of the old, and the middle-aged to 
the eternal importance of praftical fobernefs,' 
righteoufnefs, and godlinefs. — Finding the 
great indifference of Chriftians in general to 
thefe moft interefting topics, finding fome 
feparating religion from morals, or morals 
from religion, making the gofpel of Jefus 
contemptible or ridiculous, polluting it with 
cant, or perplexing it with fophifms, lower- 
ing its fublimity by their frivolous and un- 
worthy gloffes, or burying its (implicity 
under an abyfs of dark and doubtful difputa- 
itions, I have endeavoured in this work, aa 

c ? 



( xxxviii ) 

well as in my Picture of Chriftian Phtlofo- 
phy *, to warm the hearts of men with the 
fpirit of true right eoufnefs, and to lead them 
into a right track of thinking; on the doctrines 
and the duties, on the true character and 
genius of Christianity, 

ROBERT FELLOWES, 

Curate of Uarbury i near Stouthatn, War^v'ickjliir?* 

Uarbury, 
jiugujl 3, 1801. 

* My own feelings would convict, me of ingratitude, if, 
on this occafion, I did not otler my public thanks to my 
much revered and much loved friend Dr. Pair, for the 
earned, the energetic, and affectionate manner in which he 
has vindicated the Picture of Chriftian Philofophy from the 
mifreprefentations of the Britijh critics ; and, perhaps, I 
ought, at the fame time, to return my thanks to thole gen- 
tlemen for having been the occafion of my receiving fo 
much elegance of praife from one, who is equally diftin- 
guifhed by the vigor of his intellect, and the fervor of his 
benevolence; who is a philofopher without degmatifm, a 
critic without bitternels, and a priefl without intolerance 
and without guile. 



CONTENTS. 



TEXT. 



PACES 

I HE fanatics unma/ked ; fome of their mlf- 
chicvous tenets examined ', illujlrated and refuted \ 
with various praclical objervations. I — $2 

Falfe teachers; how known, 1,2.* Their 
doctrines productive of immorality, 3 — 5. 
Grace of the fanatics; their notions on, com- 
bated ; the conditions of obtaining, 6 — 8. 
Senfation no teft of grace, 9. Falfe confi- 
dence reprobated , our continual dependance 
upon God, 10. Gradual increafe in holi- 
nefs; difficulties in the way of falvation, 11. 
Fanatics, their perverfion of fcripture, parti- 
cularly of St Paul's epiffcles, 12 — 14. Their 
almoft exclufive worfliip of the Son ; bar- 
ren obfcurity of their inftrucYions, 15, 16, 
Alarming decay of morality ; promoted by 
the mifchievous doctrines of the fanatics, 
17 — 23. Effect of better inftruclions, 24. 

* Thefe figures refer to the paragraphs. 

c 4 



( xl ) 

?AGEt 

Natural capacity of man to do good or evil, 
25, 26. The fanatical reprefentations of ori- 
ginal fin deftroy the moral government of 
God; defpoil him of his attributes of good- 
nefs and juftice, 27 — 30. Preference of God; 
the motives to it j the objects of it, 31, 32. 
The righteoufnefs and unrighteoufnefs of in- 
dividuals not the fpecial appointment of God ; 
the fuppofition irrational and abfurd ; piety 
and impiety matters of free election, 33 — 35. 
Doctrines of the fanatics popular becaufc 
unfavourable to practical virtue ; the nature 
and effects of their inftructions contrafted 
with thofe of the fober miniflers of the 
eftablifhed church, 36 

Man was a free agents accountable for his actions 

before the fall, and has continued fo cycrjince, 53 — 78 

Man an accountable being, 1, 2. Moral capa- 
city of man, 3; freedom of its exercife, 4; 
the contrary fuppohtion refuted, 5, 6. Mo- 
ral capacity of man not taken away bv the 
fall ; examination of that event ; the proba- 
tionary ftate of our firft parents ; the nature 
of their trial, 7—12; how they were over- 
come, 13, 14. The moral powers of Adam 
not ftronger than thofe of his defcendants ; 
original righteoufnefs a fiction ; arguments 
againit it, 15 — 17. Man remains as upright 
as he was created ; natural integrity how 
loft, 18. Our prefent ftate of trial; con- 
trafted with that of Adam, 19, 20. Moral 
corruption not included in the fentence of 



( xli ) 

PACES 

condemnation pafTe<! on our firft parents, 21. 
The punifhment of Adam • our prefent flate 
of difeipline more favourable to moral im- 
provement, 22 — 24. Through Adam we 
become liable to fin, 25. Difference between 
the condition of Adam and his defcendants, 26 



^he do Urine of faith, fpecidative and practical, 
philosophical, theological) and moral, 

IN THREE PARTS. 

Part I. 79 — 96 

Different kinds and degrees of aflent, r, 2. 
Practical illustrations, 3, 4. Actual and mo- 
ral certainty diftinguifhed, 5. Truth of reve- 
lation a moral certainty, 6 ; faith in it an 
aflent to a highly probable truth ; inftanced in 
the fact of the refurrccYion, 7, 8. Unwife 
in religious, as in other concerns, not to a£t 
on the evidence of probability, 9 — 13. Re- 
ligious belief infeparable from fome degree of 
doubt and fome moments of diftruft, 14 — 16. 
Diftruft to be refitted ; doubts not to be 
cherifhed, 17. The lefs doubts and diftruft 
prevail, the more vigorous and operative reli- 
gious belief, 18. Goodnefs increafes with 
the increafe of faith, 19. Religious intereft 
exceeds every other ; its reality not dimi- 
nifhed by diftance ; only more fuited to our 
ftate of moral agency,. 20 — 22 



( xlii > 



PAGES 



The doctrine of faith. 

Part II. 97 — 115 

The fanatical doctrine of faith defcribed and 
Tefuted, 1 — 7. Many errors re(ped\\ng faith 
originate in the ignorance or mifapplication 
of the term, 8; its feveral fcriptural figniri- 
cations, 9 — 14. Some degree and kind of 
religious belief univerfal, 15. The heathen 
capable of difcovering the true God, 16, 17. 
Acquisition of religious knowledge favoured 
by the conftitution of nature and of man, 1 8. 
The mind, daikened by the paffions, becomes 
the Have of fin, 19. The moral corruption 
and intellectual darknefs of the heathen 
world, 20. Several manifestations of the will 
of God, anterior to the Chriftian, 21 — 26. 
Jefus the Chrift, the principal object of 
Chriftian faith ; neceflary to falvation, 27. 
True Chriftian faith infeparable from prac- 
tical righteoufnefs, 28, 29 

The doclrine of faith. 

Part III. 116 — 149 

Saving faith defcribed ; connected with mora- 
lity ; the genius of Chriftian morality, I — 8. 
The fenfations, not the proper feat of faith, 
9, 10. Real faith requires ftronger proof 
than outward profeffion, 1 1, 12; the genuine 
proof of it, 13— 15. True faith, the united 
product of the reaibn and affections, 16. 
Speculative belief, with practical irreligion ; 
and practical piety without rational convic- 



( xliti ) 

PAGES 

tlon, 17, 18. Tnflability of faith, which is 
not the product of reafon, 19 — at. The 
faith mod fuited to the nature of man and 
moil acceptable to God, 22. Different fa no- 
tions of the affections and the reafon in reli- 
gious belief, 23, 24. Rational faith not 
eafily (haken, 25. In this country, the 
means o^ rational conviction widely diftufed, 
26 Mrong popu ar arguments in favour of 
the truth of revealed religion, fuited to all 
capacities, 27. Reafonable conviction to be 
afTociated with practical righteoufnefs, 28. 
In what fenfe, faith neLcJJ'arily productive of 
righteous faefs, 29 in the conveifion of 
Atheills and Deifts, no pains to he fpared to 
promote the growth of practical p:ety, 30. 
Conviction of the mind blended with the 
perfuafion of the heart, 31 — 33 EfTentials 
and non-efftntials of religious belief, 34, 35. 
Agreement in ejjentials ought to be produc- 
tive of harmonv, 6. Points of doctrine not 
eflential to godlinefs debated with too much 
bitternefs, retained with too much obftinacy, 
37. Why people are bewildered in religious 
error, 38. Scoffing reprobated ; the fober 
infidel not to be rafhly condemned or con- 
temptuoufly reviled, 39. Diffuafion from 
intolerance, 40 

The doftrine of regeneration, rational, fcriptural, 

and ptafticaL 1 50 — 180 

Regeneration, the favourite doctrine of the fa- 
natics, i. They fuppofe it a change wrought 



( xliv ) 

without the concurrence of the reafon or the 
will, 2. Sinfulnefs not innate; innocence 
of little children ; confolation to parents ; 
perfonality of guilt, 3 — 8. How fin prevails, 
9. Regeneration when neceflary, 10 — 13. 
Nature of the change required, 14, 15. 
Perfons, in whom repentance is not required; 
the exemption belongs to few, 16, 17. 
Power of habit, 18. Progreffive converfion 
of the finner, 19 — 24. Genuine token of 
converfion ; fruitful in different degrees; not 
exempted from occafional offences, 25 — 30. 
Sinlefs perfection not demanded of us ; 
to drive after a continual increafe in good- 
nefs, 31 — 34. Danger of making moral 
comparifons in our own favour ; the true 
flandard of excellence, 35. NecerTity and 
importance of moral exertion, 36,37. The 
power of fin ; how fubdued by the penitent, 
38, 39. Cautions againfl: falfe judgments 
on, or the fupcrflcial practice of repentance, 
40 — 43. Pure religion, 44 

1'he doctrine of grace fcriptural, rational, and 

praclical. 1 £ i — 2 1 $ 

Grace ; its mode of operation and means of 
obtaining, 1 — 17. Grace of the fanatics ; 
their errors refuted, 18 — 26. Genuine fruits 
of grace contraftcd with the counterfeit, 
27 — 29. Grace does not fuperfede moral 
exertion ; or annihilate the freedom of the 
will, 30 — 36. Not an exemption from mo- 
ral obligations, 37— -40. The. Jaw and the 



< Xl7 ) 

page£< 
gofpel compared, 41,42. A ftate of, grace ' 

incompatible with a ftate of fin, 43-^-45 ; 
Compatible with occafional offences, 46 — 48. 
The difficulties of our trial ; practical re- 
flections, 49 — 60 

*Tke practice of repentance plainly and affec- 
tionately recommended. 2 1 9 — 230 

Self-deception ! 1, 2. Repentance when ne- 
ceflary ; practical remarks, 3 — 6. Late re- 
pentance, 7 — 9 ; of the thief upon the crofs 
no encouragement to finners, 10. Repent- 
ance not fudden ; progreffive ; arguments 
againft deferring it, ir — 17 

Temptations ; how to combat , and how to conquer. 231 — 243 

How temptations operate, 1 ; to be refilled by 
reafon and eonfeience, 2. Temptations not 
irrefiftible, 3 — 5. Vigilance and precautions 
againft temptations neceffary, 6, 7. Efficacy 
of prayer, 8. We tempt ourfelves ; how ; 
rieceflity of reftraining the luxuriance of the 
imagination ; importunity in prayer recom- 
jmended, 9 — \% 

Caufes of religious error and unbelief 244 — 267 

Caufes of religious error and unbelief, r. Our 
Lord's cautions againft intellectual darknefs ; 
benefits of a well regulated underftanding, 2. 
Early acquifition of religious knowledge, 3. 
Religious principles to be inftilled into chil- 
dren ; cautions to be obferved ; force of reh- 



( xlvi ) 

PAGI3 

gious prejudices, 4. Freedom of religious 
inquiry, checked bv cowardice, 5 Religious 
prejudices, pernicious diftinguiflied from ufe- 
ful, 6. Nature of prejudices exemplified, 7,8. 
Prejudices of Chriftian fe£ts, 9. The fpirit 
of perfecution not extinguifhed, 10. Conii- 
derations tending to ahate intolerance, 1 1 — 1 6. 
Superftition defcrihed, 17. Superflitions of 
the Pharifees ; of Chriftians, 18,19. Some 
caufes by which fuperftition is engendered, 
remarks tending to counteract it, 20 — 22. 
Moral corruption a frequent caufe of infi- 
delity, 23 — 25 

Evils of dijfcnfion. Temperate fuggeflions. Eccle- 
faflical union. The juji medium between indif- 
ference and intolerance in ■particular diverjities 
of opinion. 2 6 8 — 3 1 4 

Miferies of a contentious fpirit ; European wars ; 
political difTenfions ; conciliatory remarks, 
I — 7. Religious factions, contrafted with 
political; abfurdity of religious antipathy and 
intolerance, 8. Agreement in the eflentials 
of found do6lrine fhould prevent frivolous 
difputes, 9. EfTential articles cf belief con- 
nected with practical goodnefs ; to be vigor- 
oufly defended, 10. Unbelief in the being 
of a God, its pernicious effects on the con- 
duel: ; an atheifl not an objedl of fympathy, 
11. Fundamental principle of the Chriflian 
religion ; no cordial efteem between a be- 
liever and an unbeliever, 12. The regard 
due to the whole fpecies of man ; the ties, 



( xlvii ) 

which individuate and ftrengthen it, 13. 
Particular attachments increafed by moral ap- 
probation ; moral qualities a ground of pre- 
ference, 14, 15. Communion in religious 
tenets ftreno-thens individual attachments, i&. 
Particular differences of opinion which can 
reafonably neither increafe nor di minim in- 
dividual regard ; diminifhed by tenets, which 
caufe moral difapprobation, 17 — 19. Reli- 
gious peace ; fin of Schifm, 20. Reafons, 
which juftify feceffion, not applicable to the 
feceders from the church of England, 21. 
Liturgy of the Engliih church, eulogy on; 
arguments for conformity, 22, 23. Multi- 
plication of fedlaries ; confideration tending 
to eftablilh religious harmony, 24. Perfe- 
ction reprobated, 25. Effeivials of pure 
ChrifYianity ; the only reafonable grounds of 
religious (eparation, 26, 27. Peace not to 
be preferved with any church authoriling 
moral corruption, 28. The bed imerefts of 
religion and virtue promoted by the church 
of England ; moderation and unanimitv re- 
commended, 29. Occalions in which a di- 
verfity of opinions may juftify a diminution 
of benevolent regard, 30,31. Men's prac- 
tice in mod cafes conformable to their opi- 
nions, 32. Force of public opinion, falutary 
tendency of, 33 — 35. Self-approbation con- 
nected with the approbation of others; con- 
clufion, 36, 37 



PAGES 



( 1 ) 

deration, 1 6. Favour of God, means of 
obtaining, 17. Will of God, extreme dan- 
ger of deviating from, 18. Religious obe- 
dience, occaiional deflections from ; habitual ; 
poflibility of the finners return to righteouf- 
nefs ; difficulty of it, 19. Small tranfgref- 
fions, neceffity of abftaining from, 20. In- 
creafe in goodnefs an increafe in happinefs ; 
endlefs progreffion of, 21 — 23. The will of 
God, the image of his perfections ; the mo- 
ral law the effect of it ; moral improvement 
depends on obeying it, 24, 25. Perfections 
of God ; imperfections of man ; duty of zeal 
in moral improvement, 26, 27. Obedience 
to the divine will our greateil good; objec- 
tion anfwered, 28. Immutable difference 
between moral good and evil, 29. Compa- 
rifon between moral and fenfual pleafures, 30. 
Moral good, an inflinctive propenfity to ; 
natural approbation of, independant of affo- 
ciated circumftances, 31 — o ) o ) . Pleafures of 
fm counteracted bv moral diffatisfaction ; 
benefit of conftancy in moral action, 34. 
Chriftianity proves moral good the greateft 
good ; future happinefs proportionate to the 
meafure of our obedience, 35. Righteous 
habits the aggregate effect of particular acts 
of righteoufnefs; practical application, 36 — 
39. The recompence of the righteous rela- 
tive to the degree of their righteoufnefs, af- 
fectionate exhortation, 40. Perfection o£ 
the will of God contrafted with the imperfec- 
tion of that of man, 41. Obedience to the 
moral law not compulfory ; clofe connection 

7 



PAGti 



( r. ) 

between virtue and happinefs here, indiffolu- 
ble hereafter, 42, 43. Morality the perfec- 
tion of natural and revealed religion, 44. 
Imaginary model of moral excellence formed 
by reafon ; the real model exhibited by 
Chriftianity, 45. Divine perfections incom- 
prehenfible ; in the perfon of Chrift reduced 
to the level of our comprehenfion, 46, 47. 
Perfection of Chrifl's character, 48. Hif- 
torical form of the Chriftian revelation, bene- 
fit of; unifon between the precepts and the 
character, 49. Good effect of imitating a 
virtuous character, efpecially of imitating 
ChriiVs ; his perfections imitable, 50,51- 
Goodnefs of God, evidences of, in the natural 
world, checquered with apparent evil, 52. 
The wife mixture of good and evil in the 
world juft fuch as to excite the cheering ex- 
pectation of a happier life, 53. A greater 
portion of temporal good would increafe 
worklly-mindednefs, 54. Chrift a corporeal 
refemblance of the Divine Goodnefs ; imita- 
tion of his character ; its tendency to make 
us happy; to conciliate the affections of our 
fellow-creatures, 55 — 58. Chriflian morals, 
tendency of to promote individual and gene- 
ral good, 59, 60. Principle of gratitude; its 
operations; its production favoured by the 
Chriflian virtues, 61 — 64. Chriltian virtues, 
their intimate connection with our future 
happinefs ; goodnefs qualifies for admiflion 
into the pretence of God ; the only recom- 
mendation to his favour, 65 — 69 

d 2 



PAGES 



CONTENTS. 



NOTES. 



PAGE 



Fanatics among the Methodifts. Two divi- 
ftons of Methodifts. Methodifts in the church 
of England ; duty of the unvitiated mini- 
fters of the eftablimment, 2, 3 

Calvin plans and executes the deftruclion of 
Servetus ; judicious refle&ion of Grotius. 
Calvin juftiriesperfecution. Atrocious maxim 
of the Calvinifts. The Jingular urbanity of 
Calvin's ftyle 5 he refolves to alter it; and 
does alter it, for the worfe, 4 — 6 

State of the foul fitting it for the infufion of 

grace, 7— $ 

The caufe of falvation ; the conditions of, 9 

Obfcurity of St. Paul's epiftles noted by St. 
Peter; caufes of that obfcurity briefly fug 
gefted; St. James endeavours to correct the 
miftakes which they had occaiioned. Dod- 
vvell and Whitby remark St. Paul's alluiions 
to the heathen philofophy, 12 — 14 

. Paul wont to fpeak in the perfon of another, 14 



( lis ) 



PAGES 



Wide difFufion and rapid increafe of moral cor- 
ruption, extracts relative to, from Colquhoun, 17 — 19 

The new morality ! Corruptions of the fanatics 
and philofophifts compared. Cruelty and 
luft characterife fanatics antient and modern. 
Confequences in the dark ages of prohibiting 
matrimony to the Romifh clergy. The 
Romifh bifhops filled their coffers by grant- 
ing licences to their clergy to keep concu- 
bines ; fuch licences compulfory ! ! ! Great 
want of chaftity in the monafteries and among 
the Rom i ill priefthood. Tender mercies of 
fanaticifm ! Structure of the inquifitorial 
prifons ; the accumulated fufferings of the 
prifoners ; the atrocities of the inquifitors ; 
the place of torture ; the mode of torture \\\ %o — 29 

Machinations of the Methodifls, 30 

Sunday fchools inftruments of evil in the hands 
of the fanatics, 31 

Jeremy Taylor quoted ; the doctrine of original 
fin encourages perfonal depravity. Original 
corruption not the doctrine of the church of 
England. What conftitutes the church of 
England. The doctrine of the clergy the 
doctrine of the church. The right of pri- 
vate judgment not taken away by fubfcrip- 
tion to the articles ; allowed by the articles 
themfelves. Religious knowledge progref- 
five. The clergy to exercife their reafon in 
the ftudy and explanation of the fcriptures. 
Prejudices of the framers of the articles ; diffi- 
culties they had to contend with ; the pru- 
dence and moderation of their conduct. 
Laws abolifhed without beino; formallv re- 

d 3 



PAGEa 



( «♦ ) 

pealed ; eflablimed without being formally 
enacted. General practice. The greateft 
divines of the church of England have directly 
or indirectly oppofed the doctrine of the arti- 
cles. Inference from their practice and the 
practice of the majority of the clergy. The 
oath of fubfcription cannot always be taken 
in the fenfe in which it is adminiftered ; the 
abfurdity of the contrary fuppofition. No 
falfehood where no intention to deceive and 
nobody deceived. The whole body of the 
clergy can never agree in opinion on thirty- 
nine complex proportions. Opinions of the 
fame individual, liable to variations at different 
periods of his life. Such variations impoffible 
to be prevented. Opinions of a clergyman 
may change without any change in his inte- 
grity. The real ufes and ends of an eltablifh- 
ment ; not impaired by any latitude of con- 
ftruction allowed in the oath of fubfcription. 
The author's defign in thefe reflections ; his 
regard for the eftabiifhed church, 32 — 42 

Hiftory of the creation, figurative exprefTions 

in » 5 6 > 57 

Whitby reprobates the doctrine of imputed 

righteoufnefs and unrighteoufnefs, 62, 63 

Averfion to religious cant, proof of a genuine 

regard for religion, 63 

Extracts from Sir Matthew Hale and Bifhop 
Butler on the moral conftitution of man. 
Original fin declared by Jeremy Taylor con- 
trary to the doctrine of antiquity. Whitby 
educated a Calvinift, his opinion on the fub- 
ject. Mifs H. More commended and cen- 



PACES 



( Iv ) 

fared. Slanders on the fair fex by St. Auftin. 
Vindication of the ladies by the author. St. 
Jerom and Chryfoftom not friendly to wo- 
mankind, 64 — 73 
Hooker quoted ; fuppofed an advocate for ori- 
ginal corruption ; his authority oppofed by 
that of Jeremy Taylor. The latter repre- 
fents the moral ttate of man improved by the 
fall. Men made finners not by nature but 
by habit, 88 — 90 
Practical influence of faith defeated by perverfe 

notions on j unification, &c. 0/3, 94, 

Evidence of Chriftianity fufiicient for convic- 
tion, 98, 99 
Faith jujTifies, IOl 
Ceremonial and moral purity, 117 
Popifh corruption the primary caufe of French 
atheifm ; mifchievous effects attributed to 
that atheifm ; favoured by the circumstances 
of the revolution. Fanaticifm and atheifm 
compared, 125-^131 
Extract from Epifcopius in favour of religious 

toleration, 148 

Senfelefs jargon of the fanatics, 150, 15 1 

Pfalm li. 5. remarks on, by Jeremy Taylor ; 
by John Taylor ; by Grotius ; by Le Clerc ; 
Job xiv. 4. commented on by John Taylor j 
the reading of the Septuagint, 153 — 1<^ 

Le Clerc on Prov. xxii. 6. 139 

Inftructions, what moft necefTary at the prefent 

juncture, 180 

Cheerfulnefs an indication of • goodnefs ; dejec- 

tion of the Methodifh ; their long graces, 196— I 



PACES 

Character of the fanatics in the time of Epif- 

copius, 198, 1 99 

Archbifhop Newcomers tranflation of the new 

covenant, 201 

Dr. S. Clarke's paraphrafe on Luke xxiii. 

39—43, 225, 226 

Extract from Jofephus on the fruits of Sodom, 237 
Behaviour of Jefus to the Canaanitifh woman, 
Matt. xv. 21 — 28. Efficacy of prayer fcrip- 
turally and philofophically defcribed, 240 — 243 

Grotius and Rofenmuller on Luke xi. 35, 244 

Koecher on Matt. vi. 22, 23, 245 

Mifchievous tendency of cowardice, 248, 249 

Obftinacy of prejudice defcribed by Degerando, 249, 250 
Wholcfome prejudices commended; cautions, 250 

Some truly wife reflections of Grotius recom- 
mended to the attention of Dr. Prieftley, 256 
Moral corruption of the Jews the principal 

caufe of their rejecting Jefus, 266, 267 

Truth more often the fruit than the occafion of 

the difputcs of mankind, 270 

Atheifts ; whence their zeal in making pro- 

felytes, 278 

Cicero's fentiments on the importance of reli- 
gious impreffions. Locke defends intolerance 
towards atheifts. Cafes, in which pernicious 
opinions may be objects of penal reitraint. 
Two defcriptions of atheifts ; a remedy pro- 
pofed, 279 — 282 

Quotation from Dr. Pair's Spital fermon. 
Slight differences of opinion between the 
author and Dr. Parr. Dr. Parr's erudition, 
&c. his %le, 286, 3S7 



( Ivii ) 

PAGES 

Ecclefiaflical divifions condemned by Clemens 

Romanus ; chanty extolled, 289, 29P 

Duty of governments to watch over the moral 
culture of the people. Clofe connection be- 
tween moral and phyfical good ; changes in the 
moral aflbciated with analogous changes in 
the natural world. Senfe of moral duty in- 
vigorated by religion. Different effects of 
penal law and religious perfuafion. Import- 
ance of religious inftrudtion. Necefiitv of 
an eftablifhed miniftry; Error of the French 
legiflators. Beneficial alliance between church 
and flate ; an eflabliflied church favourable 
to civil liberty, 292 — 299 

Dr. S. Clarke's defcription of true religion. 
Jeremy Taylor's definition of Chriflianity. 
Cave's primitive Chriflianity, recommended 
by the bifhop of Lichfield. A work entitled 
" The Defign of Chmlianity," • 299, 300 

Genuine piety, 303 

Frivolous pretexts for religious feparation, 3°3> 3^4 

Singular in fiance of.popifh ini piety, 304 

Danger to be apprehended from fanatics and 

fanaticifm, 306, 307 

Comparative evil of bad maxims and bad exam- 
ples. Pernicious tendency of the new mora- 
lity. Falfe theories of religion and morals to 
be oppofed by reafon. The principles of 
morals and the truth of religion cannot be 
invalidated by difcuffion, 308 — 310 

The ftate of public morals, means of afcer- 
taining, 312 

The moral law the true bafis of civil policy, 342 



PAGES 


345> 


34^ 


349> 


35o 


35 r 




355 




355 




358, 


359 


360 





( toii ) 

Practical wifdom taught by fenfation, 

Eternity of future' punishments ! 

Importance of religious imprefiions made in 
early life, 

Moral perfeclioning of man, 

Man progreffive in a future life, 

Moral improvement genuine fpiritunl joy, 

Moral good happinefs ; moral evil mifery, 

Natural relifh for virtue impaired by bad habit, 360, 361 

Propenfity to behold fights of mifery ; opera- 
tions of fympathy ; its beneficial tendency ; 
aflive and pajjive habits, finking difference 
remarked in ; how the cruel character is 
formed, 361 — 363 

Argument againft innate corruption, 365 

Habits of righteoufnefs relative to the time al- 
lowed for the acquiiition, .369 

The character of Chrift the ftrongefl proof of 
the truth of Chriflianity. Wakefield's evi- 
dences of Chriftianity, 375*37^ 

The perfections of the Godhead refident in 
Jefus of Nazareth. Difficulty of the Trini- 
tarian controverfy ; charity recommended, 376 

Practical more important than fpeculative theo- 
logy, quoted from Epifcopius, 377 

Pre-eminent excellence of the Chrifbian theo- 
ry* 37$ 

Pain and mifery, whv mingled in the conftitu- 

tion of the world ; how a finite being is to 

be made mod happy, 384 — 385 

The refurrecTion of Chrift the moft convincing 
proof of a future life, 387 

The precepts of the gofpel philofophically juft, 389 



( K* ) 

PAGES 

The love of God, the root of genuine benevo- 
lence -, no true benevolence in an atheift ; 
addrefs to Mr. Godwin ; fymptoms of his 
converfion ; prayer for its confummation. 
Ivlifs Seward of Lichfield, eulogy on, 390 — 392 

Univerfal propensity to thankfulnefs on receiv- 
ing favours, 395, 396 

Direct and indirect, action of mors! canfes, 397 

The effential conllituents of true politcncfs re- 
commended in the fermon Oil the mount, 398 

Malevolence incompatible with the love of 

God, 399, 400 

Additions, 401 — 404 

Notions of the Calvimfts on faith and juftiflca- 
tion, leading to the commiffion of the fouleft 
crimes, 401 

Profound reflections of Jeremy Taj lor on the 

doctrine of the Holy Trinity, 4c? — 4C4 



ERRATA. 

Page 2, line 7, not?, for Anti-Calih.ijis read Attic ■hiniji. P. 5, 1. 13, 
note, after Ed. r. 1679. P. 5, 1. 28, note, for forem r. loncm. Ibid, for 
Coror.bcrtium r. Cornbertium. Ibid, for nebulorcm r. neb.lonem. P. 5, 1. 29, 
note, for rem r. »£«. P. 6, 1. 10. for cum que r. cumque. P, 6, 1. 13, note, for 
abeo r. ab eo. P. 14, 1. 3, note, for ermente r. ex mints. P. 21, 1. 23, note, 
for fuppatatione r. Jupputatione. P. 21, 1. 30, no;e, for Sefellerunt r. 
Sipelierukt. P. 22, I. 27, note, for tahs r. r^A;. P. 23, 1. 23, note, 
for Juor.ja. P. 23, !. 4, note, for unaquaqua r. una^uaque. P. 23, J. j<j, 
note, for per annos v. per annos. P. 24,1. 28, ::ote, for retir.endus ve r. ret'men- 
dufve. P. 28, 1. 22, for utrnmque r. utramque. P. 35, I. 3, note, dele fallible. 
P. 65, ). 1, for Jim x. fin. P. 73, 1. T, dele 18, and conhder the paragraph as 
united with the preceding. P. 89, note, I have, unwittingly, conceded to 
the advocates for the dodlrine of original Jin the hign fandtion of the 
immortal Hooker; but, on a more j < sntive j rufal of the whole works 
of this glorious defender of the Engl'uTi proteftant eftablifhment, I am con- 
vinced that he gave no more credit to the doctrne of hereditary guilt and 
imputed fin, than Jeremy Taylor of Down and Connor, the go^d and wife 
churchman, or than John Taylor of Norwich, the honeft and artlefs Prefby- 
terian. P. 147, 1. 13, for 40 r. 39. P. 149, 1. 3, for 4T r. 40. P. 155, 
1. 6, note, for quit us. r. quibus. P. 174, 1. 8, dele 35 and confider the para- 
graph as united with the preceding. P. 20c, 1. I, note, for fpir'u r. jpirits. 
P. 273, 1. I, for the r. they. P. 295, 1. 17, note, dele united. P. 205, 1. 10, 
note, fox a negative not a pojiti'vz quantity r. negatively not pojitively, P. 303, 
1. 12, for of t be r. or the. 



RELIGION WITHOUT CANT. 



The Fanatics unmafked y fome of their mifchievous tenets 
examined, illuftrated, and refuted-, with various 'prac- 
tical enervations. 



t. What our Lord faid of the falfe teachers of his 
time, " by their fruits ye fh all know them" may, with 
great propriety, be recommended as a teft, by which 
to difcover the falfe teachers of the prefent age; who, 
without any capacity to inftruct, or any authority to 
preach, are rufhing into the Chriftian church, fubfti- 
tuting the combinations of fraud for the truths of in- 
fpiration, or making the abfurdities of fancy the bafis 
of religion. 

a. " By their fruits ye fhall know them." Wc 
need no other teft by which to prove the falfehood 
of thofe dark and complex, thofe fanciful and bewil- 
dering do&rines, which the brawling votaries of Fa- 

B 



( * ) 

naticifm * are fprcading abroad, inftead of the plain 
and reafonable religion of the gofpel. The malignity 

* Where I ufe the word Fanatic and Fanaticifm, the reader 
may, if he pleafes, in mojl places, fubftitute the words Methodift 
and Methodifm. Fanatics are very numerous among that 
mads of people, who are called Methodifts, and who are di- 
vided into two great factions, denominated, — the Calviniftic 
and the Arminian Methodifts ; but who differ, as I have inti- 
mated in the preface to the Anti-Calvinifts, little in the nature 
of their doctrine, and nothing in the ?niJchicfof its tendency. 
Both are furious fupporters of the destructive doctrine of innate 
and hereditary depravity. — But in the ftrict fenfe of the word, 
all 'Fanatics are not Methodifts \ nor are all Methodifts Fanatics ; 
and, for this reafon, I have ufed, in the following pages, a 
term of a larger iignification than the term Methodifts or Me- 
thodifm, and not circumfcribed within the pale of any par- 
ticular feet of Chriftians. Moft of the pernicious tenets, how- 
ever, which I have expofed and refuted in this work, if they 
be not exclujively profefTed by the Methodifts, are yet more 
generally embraced, and more ftrenuouily defended by them, 
than by any other Chriftians in this country. — Perhaps I 
might add, that there are many Methodifts in the church as 
well as out of it. Thofe clergymen, who aflume the fplendid 
title of Evangelical preachers, are, for the moft part, Me- 
thodifts, in the prefent acceptation of that word; and are united 
in an pffenfive and defensive league with the ftationary and 
the itinerant champions of Methodifm; preaching the fame 
do6trine, and employing both art and i/uluftry to establish the 
fame impojlure. — Let the fober and ferious part of the Clergy, 
who hold faith in a good confeience, who are friends to ge- 
nuine and reafonablo Chriftianity, exert all their diligence, and 
all their zeal, to defeat the machinations, and to fruftrate the 
<-;mpts of thefe Anti-Chriftian teachers. Let them endca- 
. of to banifli the deftroyiog Demon of Fanaticifm from th<- 



( 3 ) 

of Fanaticifm, in order to be detected, and when de» 
tected, to be abhorrred, requires only to be obferved 
in its effecls on the conduct of thofe, in whofe hearts 
its baleful genius has fixed its dwelling, annulling the 
fanctity of their promifes, imparting a fpirit of extor* 
tion to their dealings, and fpreadirig the canker of 
covetoufnefs over their affections $ for it feems as 
impoflible to gather figs on thirties, or grapes on 
thorns, as it is to find the obligations of truth, juftice, 
and charity, refpected by thofe, whofe doctrine, whkh 
is diametrically oppofite to the belief of their necessity, 
neceffarily and uniformly relaxes their hold on the 
confeience, and deftroys their influence on the life. 

3. When the great moral duties, the weighty 
matters of the law, which our Lord fo forcibly incul- 
cated, and fo uniformly practifed, are affirmed not 
to belong to the covenant of falvation, and when the 
oppofite tranfgreffions are maintained to be the in- 
herent propenfities of our nature, fuch doctrines 
mud, unavoidably, caufe vice to flourifh, and virtue 
to decay. — When iniquity is openly defended under 
the banner of religion, and the fanctions of heaven are 
forged to abet the lulls of fin, who can wonder that 
the everlafling principles of truth, and juftice, anci 
mercy, are delpifed ? 



bofom of the Church of England ; and purfae it with the 
unrelenting warfare, not of artilkry, but of argumtM, to tb# 
very ends of the earth. 

B 2, 



( 4 ) 

4- Religion affords the only folid bads on which 
to raife a fuperftructure of practical goodnefs; but 
the Fanatics make even religion itfelf the foun- 
dation of unrighteoufnefs. They fubftitute what 
they call faith and grace; of which they entertain 
the mod ftrange, confufed, and unfcriptural notions, 
for the fanctity of moral obligation. They do not 
confider grace as a help to goodnefs; but a certain 
invifible fomething, which fuperfedes its neceflity. 
It is rapturous fcnfation, not fober reafon, which efla- 
blifhes their faith. They do not reprefent their con- 
verfion as fpringing from the conviction of the mind, 
and the perfuafion of the heart, working a flow and 
gradual change in the date of their affections, and in 
the habits of their conduct:;— they rather imagine it, 
like the converfion of St. Paul, miraculous, fudden, 
and inftantaneous. They pretend to know the very 
hour when it took place; and thofe among them 
who have not yet experienced this magic operation 
on their nerves, are continually waiting for its arri- 
val; till impatient expectation, working on the fancy, 
and fermenting in the brain, at laft, in fome more 
aufpicious hour, produces a thrill in their feelings * 

* Calvin, no doubt, felt the fame rapturous vibrations at 
his heart, when he fent Servetus to the flake. The great hu~ 
manity which the fiery zealot difplayed on that occafion, may 
be learned from the following extrad from Grotius. V* Cal- 
vinu8j qui antequam Servetus (i.s autem ipfius judicium fuper 
ierij)ti ; fuis expetiverat) veniret Genevum, fcripfit (exfiat ipfius 
Lutetias manus) nd Farellum jiqutd fun valeret auftoritA 



( 5 ) 

more delicious or more violent than ufual, which 
they afcribe to the agency, or miftake for the defcen: 

effeflurum ne vivus abiret. Stetit pollicitis; nam coquo fun 
accufatore fubmiffo (de quo ipfe in epiftolis editis fe jactat; qua 
erat au3oritate facile ejfccit ut zwvus ureretur Servetus, exemplo 
valdc periculofo et facile in fuos auctores recafuro." On this 
bloody tragedy Grotius makes the following very judicious 
remarks. At de Trinitate non per omnia bene fenlit Ser- 
vetUS : fieri poteft; facilis ejiim lapfus in rebus adeo fupra hu- 
manwn captum pojitis . At Scrvcti exujior an ijio in argumento 
fatisfecit omnibus ? Nihil minus. Sorbonici plures hereticarum 
opinionum, Luther ani prope omncs Arianifmi eum accujant. Unn • 
dus ergo fuit, Ji in judices incidijfet, apud quos tanta erat Sorbo- 
nicorum aut Lutheranorum, quanta ipfius erat apud Allobroges 
aucloritas. Grot. op. Ed. Tom. iii, p. 503. 

Calvin not only felt no remorfe on this occafion, but avert- 
ed, " Non mode liberum cjjh magijl rati bus pcenas fume re de ccelef- 
tis do&rince corruptoribus , Jed, quod Wis Iicere nolunt imperiti, 
Divi:nitus esse mandatum. Grot. Tom. iii, p. 655. No 
doubt Calvin was vifited with what his modern followers 
would term an experience of Grace, zvhen he deliberated on the 
murder, when he fuborncd the acaifer, and fetfre to the faggot. 
k was a maxim with the Calvinifts in the time of Grotius, 
and which they, no doubt, bequeathed to their pious defcend- 
ants, that " non auferreflatum gratice aduheria et homicidial 

Calvin was as celebrated for the urbanity of hisjiyle, and the 
gentlenefs of his rebuke, at leaf, as much as he ivasfor the tender- 
nefs of his heart, and the purity of his condufi. For inftance, 
when Caftellio oppofed his notions of prcdeftination, " nebu- 
lorem et Satanam vocat : Coronhertinm et nebnlorem et ca- 
rem : Scriptorem de officio pii viri in hoc religioHis diffidio, 
qui erat Caflander, ipii autem putabatur elfe Balduinus., np- 
pellat frontis ferreae hominem, pietatis expertem, profanum, 
impudentem, impoflorem, oltt^^/q-j {Jine naturali affeciuj pe- 

B3 



( 6 ) 

6f the Holy Ghoft. When they have once felt this 
tranfporting glow of devotional lunacy, or, as they 
may term it, cc experience of grace, " they fancy them- 
felves new creatures, purged from the lees of the old 
Adam; and delivered from the manacles of the fiefh. 
They then, for the moft part, think their falvation 
fure. " The change," fay they," " has taken place; 
and new light dawns on the darknefs of our hearts*" 

5. Thefedelufionsof the Fanatics produce, as might 
be expected, an extreme carelefihefs about the mo- 

tulantise deditum. Ei fcripto cum fe oppofuiffet Balduinus, 
vocat eum hominem nihili, obfeaenum canem, improbum fal- 
farium, multa fcelefte ac nequiter cogitantem, et confpirantem 
cum improbis nebulonibus, cynicum, fcurram, perfidum, 
fatuum, belluina rabie, Satanae addictum. Caftandrum dv^xo-/) 
(Jibif>lacentem) morofum, lamiam, larvam, ferpentem, peftem, 
carnificem." Grot. op. Tom. iii, p. 655. Grotius continues, 
rt hanc maledicendi libidinem Calvinus in epiftola ad Bu- 
cerum xar, £v(pYjiu(r^ov (per emoUitionem) impatientiam vocat: 
cum que ea magnam fibi ait eiTe lu6tam : et nonnihil fe pro- 
ficere, fed nondum id confecutum ut belluam domuerit." — 
On this penitent confeffion of the fanguinary bigot, Grotius 
makes this fhrewd remark: <l Si quis poll id abeo fcripta 
leget, inveniet eum profeciffe fed in pejus: adeo ei illud place- 
bat, Quod non volo, facio." This, " quod non vo/o,facio" 
is a favourite fentiment in the mouth of his admirers of the 
prefent century; and I leave the reader to imagine to what 
furpofes it is coynmonly applied. — I (hall conclude this note in 
the words of Grotius : <( Haecnon adfero quod mini cum mor- 
tuis libeat luctari, fed, auiA video ita plekumgue evenire, 

UT QU1SQUE MORES 1MITETUR EJUS, ftUEM SI£I SUMSIT 

masistrum. Grot. op. Tom. iii, p. 656. 



( 7 ) 

rality of their conducts a contemptuous neglect of 
the practical duties of religion. Making holinefs to 
confift more in turbulence of fenfation than in recti- 
tude of action; and meafuring the will of God by the 
falfe and varying flandard of their feelings: it is no 
wonder that they think themfelves privileged from 
the obfervance of truth, of juftice, and all the endear- 
ing charities of life. 

6. The grace of the Fanatics,* to which they 
afcribe fuch marvellous effects, operates on the fen- 
timents, without the concurring agency of the reafon, 
and changes the character without the confent of the 
will. With them, grace invalidates the ufe of reli- 
gious inquiry, and fuperfedes the neceffity of moral 
exertion. — Who can calculate the mifchief of fuch 
opinions ? 

7* By the new covenant of falvation, and, pro* 
bably, according to fixed and general laws, to which 
the divine will may have made the fpiritual helps, 
promifed in that covenant, fubfervient, good endea- 
vours |, on the part of man, feem the conditions to 



* The do&rine of grace is only fligbtly touched on here: 
the reader will find it more fully difcuffed in that part of this 
work which is entitled, The Doctrine of Grace. 

+ In the parable of the Tower we read that none of the Ce^d 
brought forth fruit but that which was fown in good ground 

B 4 



( 8 ) 

which grace is appended on the part of God. They 
appear introductory to its infufion, and the medium 
of its agency. Good endeavours are affociated with 
the free gift of grace ; and grace increafes their 
flrength, and facilitates their execution. Wherever 
there is an earned driving after moral righteoufnefs, 
a third of the affections, and a labour of the will to 
perform the law that is impreffcd on the confcience, 
and infcribed on the heart (as in the cafe of Corne- 
lius, whofe prayers and alms had gone up as a me- 
morial before God), the grace or favour of God is 
fried upon the fcul. 

8. Grace is not only a bleffng on the actual exer- 
tions of man to do the will of God, but a power given 
us to do it more effectually. When grace is thus 
ufed, it produces more grace j and the right and rea- 
fonable application of the increafed and increafing 
portions of grace, which the righteous receive, gra- 



Good feed is no more fruitful than bad, unlefs there be, at the 
fame time, goodnefs in the ground in which it is fown; and 
the better the foil, the more prolific the feed, and the more 
abundant the harveft. Grace is never operative and fruitful 
in any but a good and honeji heart. The foil of the heart muft 
be prepared to receive it: and what preparation of the heart 
does God require, as fitting the individual for the infufion of 
his favour, but the love of truth, of juftice, and of mercy; 
and honeft endeavours, according to the utmoft of our natural 
ability, to practice the duties of truth, of juftice, and of mercy? 



( 9 ) 

dually promotes the growth, and matures the ftrength 
of thofe habits of hoiinefs which lead to immortality. 

9. If fenfation, according to the fanciful hypothecs 
of the Fanatics, were the only channel through which 
the communications of grace were made to flow, and 
to which its experience were confined; then it would 
be rather a pleaiure to be enjoyed, than a power to be 
exercifed ; it would rather be an appeal to our animal, 
than our rational nature -, rather an agreeable impulfe 
on the flefh, than a purifying afpiration on the foul. 
But if moral goodnefs be the covenanted condition 
to which grace belongs, not of right, but by the mercy 
cf God*, and if an increafed defire of improving in 
righteoufnefs, and an increafed aclivity in doing t\\Q 
will of God, be the only true fcriptural ted of its pof- 
feffion, then grace muft, certainly, be not fo much 
an ecftafy to ravifh, as a talent to employ; and it 
appears, from various intimations in fcripture, and 
from many analogies in the natural world, that grace 
mud be ufed if we wifh it to be increafed j and that 
it will not be increafed if it be not ufed. 

-\ 10. The more continually we labour to do good, A" 
the greater averfion we (hall feel to do evil. — Many 



* In the Chriftian covenant the caufe of our falvation is the 
Jove and mercy of God; and the conditions are our obedience to 
his lavus,Jincere, though imp erf e 3 ; our hone/i, though iveah. en- 
deavours', our upright, though, fometimes } not Jinlefs lives. 



( go ) 

, a penitent, of whofe return to righteoufnefs there hay 
f been the happieft promife and the faireft hope, has 
. relapfed into fin, from indulging afalfe confidence, and 
fuppofing that becaufe he had recovered from the 
, pad, he was fafe for the future. When a man's vigi- 
lance againft temptation relaxes, he is almoft fure 
of falling into a fnare. — It is dangerous to rely entirely 
( on our own ftrength. He, who does it, thinks the 
t help of God fuperftuouo, and the temerity of this 
, vain imagination caufes that help not to be had, when 
! it is wanted; and not to be found, when it is fought. 
' Man muft, indeed, ftrenuoufiy exert, and feduloufly 
ftrengthen his fenfe of right and wrong; he muft op- 
f pofe his natural power to do good to his wayward 
. inclinations to do evil, before God will afiift him 
rwith fuccour from above. But he, who labours to 
♦ do good, ought always to remember with humility, 
rthat he will labour in vain without divine co-opera- 
i tion. He mould work ; but he mould work without 
f pride; and drive without prefumption. He mould 
i be animated with zeal, but his zeal mould be temper- 
I ed with caution ; and he mould be refolute, but his 
f refolution mould be moderated by a godly fear. Let 
(us never be unmindful of him who dvvelleth on high; 
, and without whofe favour all our thoughts are but as 
j air, and all our exertions only vanity. As we are to- 
i tally dependant, every moment of our lives, on the 
I will of him who made us, it is our duty in all that we 
1 do, in all that we plan, or all that we attempt, to im* 
, plore him to work together with us, and to direcl: 



( » ) 

our Heps in that way in which it is beft for us* 
to go.-* 

n. The growth of hoiinefs into a habit, or into 
a fettled, undeviating difpofition to beneficence, is 
not the effect of fome momentary glow of devotion, 
or of fome tranfient longing after God; — it is, and 
muft be, a work of time; and thofe who know them- 
felves, and thofe who have fearched into the hearts, 
and furveyed the conduct of others, know that many 
relapfes and convalefcences, many deliverances from 
fin, and many returns to unrighteoufnefs, ufuaiiy 
happen before the good feed of the word is tho- 
roughly rooted in the heart, and made fruitful in the 
life. — Salvation in the way in which 1 confider the 
nature of the covenant to which it is attached, is a 
work of more difficulty and danger than is commonly 
imagined; bacaufe it depends, conditionally, on the 
habits of goodnefs which we form in this mortal life; 
and which, amid the temptations by which we are 
furrounded, and to whofe influence we are almofl 
every hour expofed, feem difficult to acquire ; and 
more eafy to lofe than to retain. — But if thofe no- 
tions which the Fanatics propagate, be genuine 
truths inftead of vain delufions, then the idle may 
obtain admiffion into heaven, and the crown of glory 
may be worn by the worthlefs, who can breathe the 
ftream of felf-love upon their nerves, till they feem 
to thrill with joys which feraphs feel. 

i a. To the fcoffer it may be amufing, but to the 



( 12 ) 

genuine Chriftian it muft be afflicting to obferve, how 
the Fanatics garble the gofpel to promote their own 
interefted ends. Whatever may be the meafure of 
their understanding, they certainly do not want in- 
genuity in perverting the fcriptures to fupport their 
prejudices, and in making them utter a found in tune 
with their whims. Neglecting thole parts of the cove- 
nant of falvation, on which no clouds and darknefs 
reft, they pay an almoft exclufive attention to the 
moft obfeure and myfterious pafliges in the epifties 
of St. Paul. By the help of what they call inward 
light, which they think communicated exclufively to 
their own feet, they deem themfelves qualified to 
interpret the abftrufeft doctrines without thofe aids 
of erudition which more fober people think necef- 
fary for the purpofe. The inward light of the Fa- 
natics enables them to dive into the profoundeft 
depths of theology, and to unfold its darkeft myf- 
teries: — As in the writings of the Evangelifts, they 
meet with truths, little congenial to their unhallowed 
speculations, — truths eafy to be underftood, and con- 
sequently difficult to be perverted; they cull mod of 
the hard fayings, with which they puzzle the ig- 
norant, and entrap the unwary, from the epifties of 
the apoftle to the Gentiles. 

13. Abufing the writings of St. Paul*, as fome 



* KaQw; y.cci dyccn'r j 'fog iju,o>v d$s\(po$ Udu/.oc xxrocryv autuj 



( i3 ) 

unlearned and unfteady perfons feem to have done 
in the apoftolic age, they wrefl them to their own 



XolXiov sv dvrais tz£§1 rs-toov, sy oCtg s<m dv<rvoYjra, Tivcc, a 01 d^d- 
Qei; kva acrrygiKroi (rrgEfixScriv w$ y.ai rocg \onrct$yocc(pa,$, vago; fyv 
ifooLv oivrtjjv drftoXsictv. 2 Ep. Pet. iii. 15, 1(5. — In this paifage, 
I know that the majority of editors and commentators read, 
sv oiV, inflead of zv aXs, but fuppofing sv 61$ to be the true 
reading, which is by no means certain, then ol§ mufr. refer to 
Tsrajv; and the meaning will be, that, in the epiftles of Paul, 
there are many topics difcufTed which are difficult to be un- 
derftoodj and which had been fatally perverted by fome, who 
wanted knowledge, and by others, who wanted principle. — 
Whether St. Peter allude to the obfcurity of the manner, or 
to the obfcurity of the matter, is not very necefTary to in- 
quire \ but at prefent, it is certain, that many paflages in the 
writings of St. Paul do contain ra £ycyOTjra, both on account 
of the obfcurity of the ftyle, and the obfcurity of the fubjecV 
The ftyle is tinctured with Rabbinical idioms ; and the matter, 
perhaps, in fome degree, with the Rabbinical philofophy. 
St Paul was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel 3 and, before 
his conversion, he had made a great progrefs in the learn- 
ing of the Jews.— To the fagacious, I need not repeat an 
old obfervation, "fervahit odorem Tefla diu," &c. Thofe who 
know human nature, will immediately perceive the juftnefs 
of the remark} and I mall not wafte my time in endeavour- 
ing to make it fatisfactory to thofe who do not. St. James, 
in his epiftle, 11, 14, 26, evidently intended to combat, and 
to counteract fome of thofe erroneous and mifchievous notions 
on the nature and efficacy of faith which begun to prevail 
in his time, and which feem to have originated in the inno- 
cent miftake, or the wilful perverfiqn of the doctrine itfelf, 
as it is laid down in the epiftle to the Romans. In the pre- 
face to his Five Points, Whitby refers to the learned Dodwell 



( 1* ) 

deftruction; deducing from diem doclrines which 
they do not countenance •, and encouraging themfelves 
in iniquity, on the prefumed fanction of their autho- 
rity *. 

14. If forfie things in the epiftles of St. Paul were 
hard to be underftood in the age in which they were 
written, as St. Peter him felf confefTes, they muft cer- 
tainly be more obfeure after the lapfe of fo many 
centuries, than they were in that period when the 
fac"ls, to which they alluded, were recent; when 
the difienfions which they were intended to pacify, 
the htrefies they were to combat, and the fophifms 
they were to refute, Were matters of public notoriety, 



(Proleg. ad I. Steam de obftin. § 41) as faying, * that St. Paul 
being bred a Pharifee, fpake there (in the 9th chapter to the 
Romans), and is to be interpreted, ermente Pharifaeorum, 
according to the doclrinc of the Pharifee s concerning fate, ivhich 
they had borrowed from the Stoicks." On Rom. viii. 2. Whitby 
fays, " Here the apoftle feems to fpeak according to the phi- 
lofophy of the heathens, with which the Jews began to be 
acquainted, that man was not to be denominated from his 
body, or his fenfual and carnal part, but from his mind, his 
yac or Xoyur) foctvoix,, which, in Thilos' phrafe, is w SKOtfQi 
qiMOV ctv Qgouiros, the man ivithin us" 

* It is well known that St. Paul is very wont, psrxo-yjtAali- 
gsiv, to fpeak in the pcrfon of another, whofe character he af» 
fumes, and whofe fentiments he utters ; as Rom. iii. 7, and 
pai -ticulaily in Rom. vii. 14 — 25, and other places, ivhich are 
always perverted by the Fanatics. 

I 



( t 5 ) 

and topics of common converfation. — But the fta~ 
tiortary preachers, and the itinerant heralds of Fanati- 
cifm, fome of whom can hardly read a fentence in 
Englifh, and the majority of whom are ignorant of 
the learned languages, think themfelves qualified, by 
the excefs of their inward light, to make clear what 
St. Peter pronounced dark, and to unravel what he 
thought intricate; and they pafs decrees as perem- 
tory as the determinations of a Papal bull on points 
of faith and doctrine, on which others, who are not 
favoured with the fame miraculous penetration, think 
with doubt, and talk with diffidence. 

15. Where the gofpel is moft plain and moft for- 
cibly practical, the Fanatics perplex it with fubtilties, 
or make its energy of none effedr. by their interpola- 
tions. In their devotions they pay much lefs ho- 
mage to the Father than to the Son; and, indeed, 
they often addrefs their petitions to the one, without 
any reference to the other. They make the one 
characterized by the inflexible Jeverity ofjuftice-, and 
to the other they aflign, exclufivcly, the winning at- 
tribute of mercy. To the Lord's prayer they allow 
tittle authority; — they either pafs it over in fullen 
filence, or they repeat it with unauthorized additions. 

16. In their inftructions, the paftors ofFanaticifm 
labour more earneftly and more efFe&ually to de- 
prefs the fpirits, and to bewilder the minds of their 
audience, by the ravings of myfticifm, than to im- 



( i6 ) 

prefs them with thofe truths which, by coming home 
to their interefts and bofoms, may fave their fouls. 
With fcrupulous care they overlook, or with con- 
temptuous fcorn they deride thofe paflages in the 
fcriptures which are as clear as they are ufeful; and 
which relate to thofe duties, of which the practice 
will be necefiary as long as the world endures* 
Though they pay fo great a deference, and fo exclu- 
five a regard to the authority of St. Paul, they Jiften 
with little fatisfaction, even to the teaching of their 
favourite apoftle, when he extols charity above faith; 
when he declares love to be the bond of perfednefs, 
and the end of the commandment j when he exhorts 
Chriilians to be ready unto every good work, and 
denying iingcdlinefs and worldly lujls y to live Joberly> 
right eoiifly, and godly in this prejent world. 

17. That moral corruption has experienced a 
great and unparalleled increafe of late years is what 
no obferving man can deny, and what every good 
one muft deplore. Within the period of the laft 
thirty years, the once frefh, and healthy, and vigorous 
morality of Englifhmen has withered away s and the 
principles of the people have undergone a rapid 
and fatal deterioration. Almoft every tender feel- 
ing is chilled \ and almoft every generous fentiment 
has decayed. The fancYity of truth and honefty 
feem almoft effaced from the confeience of the peo- 
ple; and I have ftrong reafons for believing that my 
calculation is not exaggerated, when I fay, that the 



< 17 ) 

practice of thofe virtues, and the reverence for their 
immutable obligations are, at lead, ten times lefs now 
than they were about half a century ago ** 



* The following extracts from a book which prcfents many 
curious, but afflicting details of the dying virtue of the peo- 
ple, may afford fome faint idea of the prefent ftate of Englifh 
morals. The facts themfelves are, for the moft part, confined 
to the metropolis; but they will exhibit fome data, by which 
we may form no very imperfect guefs of the general morality 
of the country. The moral or immoral character of the people, 
who are placed more within the vicinity of the feat of govern- 
ment, exhibits an imperfect likenefs of the popular manners in 
places more remote. For in the prefent ftate of luxurious civil- 
ization, when the communication between the metropolis and 
the diftant provinces of the empire is fo expeditious and fo 
frequent, corruption foon fpreads from the centre to the ex- 
tremities; and the villages become infected with the abomina- 
tions of the capital. 

" The numher of the receivers of Jlolen goods in the metropolis 
alone has increased within the last twenty years 
from 3CO to 3000."— Colquhouri on the Police of the Me- 
tropolis, ed. 6th, p. 12. 

" Scarcely a waggon leaves London, which does not carry 
boxes and parcles of bafe coin into the country; particularly 
to the fea-ports, camps, &c. — In the feveral public houfes, 
hawkers, pedlars, gamblers, Jews, &c. &c. are regularly fup- 
plied with counterfeit money at an advantage of near 100 per 
cent, in their favour." p. 16. 

" There are in the metropolis and country at leaft 120 
principal dealers in, and coiners of, bafe money, beiides nume- 
rous utterers; of whom more than 650 perfons have either 
been profecuted or convicted, within the laft 7 years." p. J Q. 

<f In the courfe of 7 years, not lefs than 4262 perfons who 

c 



( i« ) 

1 8. Not many years have etapfed fince the inha- 
bitants of mod cf" our villages might go to fleep, in 



had been put upon their trial by the grand jury, were let loofe 
upon the public by acquittals." p. 21. 

" The drivers of gentlemen's carriages are generally entruft- 
ed to buy hay, ftraw, corn, &c. for their horfesj and they 
ufually cheat their mailers of 5s. in every load of hay : of 
2s. 6d. in each load of draw; and Is. in every quarter of corn." 
— Middleton quoted by Colquhoun. 

" It has been eftimated that 20,000 bufhelsof ears of wheat, 
and other grain, are carried off every Sunday morning, in the 
neighbourhood of Loi\don, and 10,000 more during the other 
fix days of the week, or one million and a half in a year ; 
which, valued at only 6d. each, would amount to £.37,500." 
— Middleton, ut fup. 

Mr. Middleton calculates that the depredations committed 
on the landed intereft, amount to 4s. per acre per annum} or 
eight millions fterlin gr. 

" The principal gaming houfes, at the weft end of the town, 
have dated days on which they have luxurious dinners (parti- 
cularly Sundays), when merchants' and bankers' clerks, and 
other perfons, intruded with money, are invited. The ex- 
pences, attendant on fuch houfes, were fuppoled to amount to 
£.150,000 annually." p. 140. 

" The gambling and lottery iran factions of one individual 
in the metropolis, are faid to be productive of, from 10 to 15 
fuicides annually ! ! !" p. 325. 

* The aggregate funis loft and won at the different gaming 
houfes in the metropolis, in the courfe of a year, are fuppofed 
to amount to £./,22<5,000," p. 143. 

" The amount of fraudulent infurances in the lottery are 
calculated at £.\0,A 60,000." 

Such a hiftory of accumulated and rapidly accumulating 
depravity, as Mr. Colquhoun's excellent work exhibits, is well 



. ( *9 ) 

perfect fecurity, with their windows open, or their 
doors unbarred, without any danger of moleftation, or 
the hazard of a fingle depredation. At that time, 
juftice and truth were more revered. An oath was 
held inviolate j the roeaneft mechanic, and the poor- 
eft day labourer were imprefled with an awful Jenje 
of its importance: it was deemed an appeal to God; 
and too facred to be trifled with; but at prefent, falfe- 
hood is little more heeded, than if truth were only a 
puff of air. 

19. The moral principles of the people have re- 
reived a terrible (hock; they have, indeed, almoft 
undergone a total revolution in favour of vice. The 
great increaie of luxury, and the great preffure of 
taxation, a great luft of fplendour on the one hand, 
and a great diminution in the means of fubfiftence 
on the other, have certainly confpired to pour a rank 
pollution into the national manners; and to fpread 
the gangrene of guilt over the whole heart of the 
community. But, among the other aftive and power- 
ful caufesy a caufe whofe influence is vaft and con- 
ftantly increafmg, is the wide diffufion of the deleterious 



fitted to excite the reflections of the contemplative, the forrow 
of the good, and the difmay of the provident. The genuine 
religious principle, which was once fo operative, which once fo 
powerfully impelled to good and difTuaded from evil, feems to 
be daily lofing its influence on the heart, and its authority over 
the confcience : and the more that falfe and mifchievous dofirim,, 
'which the Fanatics teach, prevails, the more luill it decline* 

c 2 



( 3° ) 

tenets of the Fanatics ; which I am convinced, from 
a diligent and difpafilonate obfervation of their effects, 
have a direct tendency to wither every fhoot of inte- 
grity on the confcience, and to accelerate the growth 
of the mod deflructive crimes*. 



* The propagation of vice is, likewife, not much impeded by 
the diffufion of what is called the ncxv morality, which is the 
old morality (I mean the morality of Jefus Chrift, whofe au- 
thority is incon tellable, and whole origin is divine) diverted 
of its fanclions; its ftrength wafted, its glory faded; a body, 
full of animation and beauty, turned into a mats of putrefcence 
and corruption. The principles of the Philofophifts, and the 
principles of the Fanatics are not 'very d'fjimilar in their tendency 
to do mifc/iicf. The latter gravitate to the centre of hereditary 
corruption j the former to that of perfonal depravity. With 
the Fanatics immorality is the decree of God j with the Philo- 
fophifts morality is nothing but the whim of man. "With the 
Fanatics immoiality is a matter of neceflityj with the Philofo- 
phifts morality is only a matter of human convention. The Fa- 
natics think that the practice of truth and jufticc will have na 
influence on our happinefs in another life 5 the Philofophifts 
maintain that there is no life beyond this; and,confequently, that 
truth and juftice can have no relation to what has no exiftence. 
In the agapas of the Fanatics defire is often indulged without 
reftraintj becaufc it is thought to contribute to the perfecting 
of the faints in love; in the fchools of the Philofophifts pro- 
mifcuous concubinage is licenfed for the general good; and 
which general good means the wayward appetite of every indi- 
vidual. 

Luft and cruelty are very common features in the picture 
of Fanatics of all ages and countries. In thefe high diftinclions, 
the Fanatics of theprefent day have, probably, been furpafied 
by the Fanatics of old 3 but the former only want circumjlances 



( 21 ) 

io. By decrying moral duties, or talking of them with 
a contemptuous fheer (as if pure morality and pure 



equally favourable, ignorance ainong their fellotU'creatures equally 
dcnfe> and power in their own hands equally strong, 
to make the latter hide their diminiflied heads; and yield to them 
the proud pre-e?ninence in cruelty and lujt. The Fanatics of old 
were fo much attached to continence, that they thought mar- 
riage a crying fin; but hiftory teaches us that their pompous 
pretentions to chaftity were a rank impofture. Speaking of 
the intolerant bigots and hypocritical religionifts of former 
times, " Certum eft," fays a great writer, and one of the pureft 
friends to pure chriftianity, " quoniam omne aeftuantis libi- 
dinis remedium cafti matrimonii ufu ipfis interdictum eft, in 
illicitam venerem, omni abje6to pudore licentiofe proruere, 
ac in voluptatibus carnalibus fcede volutari. Erafmus ad no- 
tata Beddae, torn. ix. p. 401. ait : Eft apud Germanos Epif- 
copus quidam, qui ipfe dixit in convivio, uno anno adfe delata 
undecim ?nillia facer dotu?n i palam concubinariorum* Nam tales 
fingulis annis pendunt aliquid Epifcopo. Item, in locis ple- 
rifque, Epifcopi et eorum ofBciales, non folum facerdotum 
tolerant concubinatum, dummodo certa perfolvatur pecunia : 
fed et facerdotes continentes, et qui abfque concubinis degunt, con- 
cubinatus cenfum perfolvcre cogunt, ajfersntes, Epifcopwn pecuniae 
indigum cjfe> qua folutd, licere facerdotibus, ut vel ccelibcs perma- 
neant, vel concubinas alant. Idem Erafmus in fuppatatione 
errorum Beddae, torn. ix. p. 484. hcec habet. Quid mirum 
ii aetate Auguftini dictae funt aliquot virgines fnnclimoniales 
nupfiffe, cum hoc faeculo tot dicantur e(Te monafieria, quce nihil 
a Hud funt quam publica lupqnaria, plura privata ; tian in his ip/is, 
qiue maxime probatce difciplincc funt , multo plures funt quce velum 
habeant, quam quce virginitatew, — Novi quofdam, qui puellas, 
quibus fuerant abufi, auo res premeretur, sepellerun.t in 
t monasteriis. — Magnince Bedda clarnat, afrit, abfit, ut qiuf- 

c 3 



( « ) 

religion could ever be divided), the bufy propagators 
of Fanaticifm caufe morality to be an object of deri- 



quam admittatur ad facerdotii dignitatem, qui carnis in totum 
non contemnit illecebrasj quum hodie inveniantur, qui quin- 
quaginta habent concubinas, ne quid addam fceleratius. lb. 
p. 56g, et p. 985, de interdiclo carnium ufu. Inter facerdotes 
quanta raritas eorum, qui cafte vivunt? De bis loquor qui 
donii palara alunt concubinas uxorum loco. Necenim attin^o 
nunc fecretiorum libidinum myfteria. Tanium ca loquor, qiuc 
•vu/go quo que noiijfimafant. Sceleratius autem eft quod narrat 
p. 1380, refpons. ad quendam febricitantem ; quendam Theo- 
logian profefforem Dominicanum, nomine Joannem, fibi Ant- 
verpias, in aedibus Nicolai Middelburgenfis Medici, nominafte 
Thcologum Lovanienfem, unde acceperat, quod quendam paf- 
torem facrarum virginum, qui confeffus eft> fe cum ducentis 
habuiffe ftupri cor.fuetudinem, inabfolutum dimiferit. Sed 
quid opus eft teftimonia ex autoribus fingularibus proferre? 
Ipfae leges Inquifitionis, quae Sacerdotibus, non tan turn fcemi- 
nas, fed proh fcelus ! etiam pueros in facramentali confeflione 
follicitantibus, pcenas decernunt, indicium font, crimina haec, 
in impuro ifto c<elibatu, nimis efle vulgaria et frequentia." 
Vid. Limborch. Hi ft. Inquifit. Amftel. 1692, p. 33, 34. 

That we may form fome faint conjecture of the tender mercies 
of Fanaticifm, let us enter the walls of the Jnquifnion, taking 
Limborch for our guide. 

" Carceres hi in Hifpania et Lufitania. vocantur Junta eafa 
hoc eft fancta domus. Omnia, fcilicet, in hoc officio funt 
fancta. Strucuira eorum, prout earn defcribit autor hiftorioe 
Inquifitionis Goanae, talcs eft, ut pluribus captivis aficrvandis 
ftt accommodata. Condant nempe variis porticibus, quorum 
ftnguli in varias exigtias cameras funt diftributi, liguraj quad- 
ratae; quarum latera fingula funt decern pedum, lllorum duo 
funt ordines, quorum alter alteri fupcrftructus eft; funtque 
conftrudi opere fornicato. Superiores illnminantur per crates 



( n ) 

fion rather than of reverence in the minds of their 
converts. They are taught that heaven may be 



ferreos, fed fupra viri etiam proceri ftaturam elevatos. Infe- 
riores funt fubterraneae, obfcurae, fine ulla feneftra, et fuperio* 
ribus anguftiores. Parietes funt craflitudinis quinque pedum. 
Unaquaequae camera duobus oftiis clauditur; interius craftum 
eft et ferro obductum ; pars illius inferior confiat crate ferreoj 
in fuperiore parte exigua eft feneftella per quam captivo cibus, 
lintea, aliaque neceifaria porriguntur, clauditurque du@bus 
ferreis obicibus, Exterius ottium folidum eft line ulla aper- 
tura; illud ordinarie mane ab hora fexta, ufque undecimam. 
aperiri folet, ut aer carceris aliquatenus repurgetur." Limb. 
Hift. Inquis. 158. " In Hilpania, ut mihi narravit Ifaacus 
Orobio nonnunquam dantur carbones, qui igne accenduntur, ut 
ipfi cibum fuumcoquant; aliquando conceditur candela; fed 
qui in car cere fubterraneo detineniur, plerwnquc fedent in tcnebris } 
in iifque ferannos aliquot detineniur ; vemini cos adire aut alhqui 
licet ; nifi folis carceris cuftodibus; idque ftatis tantum horis 
quando cibum porrigunt. Non licet ullos habere devotionis li~ 
bros 5 Jed in tcnebris et folhudine detinentur, ut tarn tetri carceris 
horrore frangantur, illiusque tcedio ea confiteantur QU7E 
SJEPE non commiserunt." p. 159- " Nulli in carccre mutire, 
ullumvc fonum cdere licet \ fed altum in eo fert'atur filentium. Si 
quis ejulet, aut infortunium fuum deploret, aut, clara voce, 
Deum precetur, aut cantet, five pfalmum, five hymnum fuo- 
rum, mox adfunt carceris cuftodes, qui in porticu continuas 
agunt excubiasj omnemque etiam minimum fonum, audire 
poffunt, monentque in domo bac filentium effe fervandum. Si 
non pareat captivus, iterato eum monent cuftodes. Si nihil- 
ominus pergat captivus, cuftos, aperto carcere, fufte eum egre- 
gie dedoiat ; non tantum ut ipfum caftiget, fed et deterreat 
alios; qui, quoniam camerae funt contiguse altumque fervatur 
filentium, et ejulatum et fonitum ictuum oui infliguntur, 

C 4 ' 



( 24 ) 

obtained on eafier condiiions, than thofe habits of 
actual goodncis, which are (lowly acquired, and diffU 



commode audire poftunt. Addam hie Darratiunculam, 
ex quorundam ore habui, undequam fevere fileotium he 
fervetur, colligere licet. Captwus quidam tu, adfunl 

excubitores ; monent ut tuffim omittai, quia illicitum effet in ehmfk 
hdc ullum emitter c Jonum. Ille refporidit, hoc arbitrii fui non 
eife : nihilominus, cum fecundo monitus tujjim ?i r m omitterct, 
ipfum dejiudatum piurihus ittibus mifere coniundwit: cum hue ra- 
tione tujjh auger etur ', aliquotics •verberatus fuit ; donee tandem iter- 
berum •vehementid mortuus fuit." p. l(5i, 1 62 The JcijtUve 
confcienccs, and the rejined morality of the Lnquijitorial Fanatics 
will be evident from the following relation: ** Hiipali homo 
quidam pauper ac ex fudore fuo quotidianum fibi et familiae 
vic"tum parans, cui Clericus quidam uxorem violenter abduc- 
tam detinebat, nulla, interea, neque Inquifitione neque alterius 
tribunalis autoritate atrocem injnriam vindicante. Is pauper, 
dum inter alios ejufdem conditionis homines, de purgatorio, 
forte, exoritur fermo, excepit ipfe rufiicana potius fimplicitate, 
quam certo connlio, fe fatis quidem habere purgatorii, cui 
peiiimus nebulo uxorem violenter averterit, Sec. Is fermo ad 
aures boni Clerici delatus, ingemjnandi in pauperem injutiam, 
pccafionem obtalit, illumque, ut male de purgatorio fentientem, 
apud Inquifitores accufat. Erratum hoc pauperis fanfto tribu- 
nali dignins eft habiium in qijod autoritate inquifitorid vindicarct, 
quamfceJus Clerici. Itaque ob illud tantulum verbum mifer 
capitur, detruditur in inquifitoriis ergaftulis biennio toto ; ac 
demum in triumphum eductus damnatur ad geftandum San- 
benitum per triennium, quod in private* carcere exigatj eoque 
exa6to, an dimiftendus liber, retinendus ve adhuc lit in carcere 
dominorum Inquifitorum arbitrium elio. Neque qualibufcun- 
que, pauperis alioquin hominis, fortunis eft parcitum, ut uxor 
Clerico, quod vero fupererat tenuilfmvaiiun fortqnarum, poil 



( 25 ) 

cultly retained; which cannot be generated without 
labour, and may be loft without watchfalnefs. — But 



diuturnum ilium carcerem, inquifitorio cederet Fifco." p. 328. 
The wanton manner in which the Inquihtorial Fanatics (lied 
the blood of the innocent, and afterwards endeavoured to atone 
for the moft atrocious murders by the fouleft lies, will appear 
from the following narrative, which no man can well perufe 
without horror: " Ceperunt, eodem fere tempore, in eadem 
Hifpalenfj Inquifitione nobilem quandam fee mi nam Joannam 
Bohorquiam, uxorem Francifci Varquii, viri imprimis clari ac 
Kiguerae Domini, filiam vero Petri Garfiae Xerelii Hifpalenfis 
civis opulentiHimi. Captivitatis caufa fuit, quod foror ipfius 
Maria Bohorquia fpeclatee pietatis virgo, quam poftea ob piam 
confemonem igni tradiderunt, in tormentis declaralfet, fe ali- 
quoties, cum forore fua de ea. doctrina contuliffe. Quumillam 
in carcerem conjecernnt, gerebat uterum femeftrem ferme qua 
de caufa neque adeo arete earn recluferunt, neque cum ipfa 
agebant ea fasvitia, qua cum aliis vinctis folent, feetui nimirum 
confulentes. Octavo a partu die fastum illi auferunt j quinto 
decimo vero earn recluduntj eandemque, cum aliis vinctis 
omnibus, conditionem cogunt experirij ac caufa ipfius quo 
rigore quibufque folent artibus agitari caepta. In tanta ca- 
lamitate id tantum folatii amictae contigit, quod virgo qusedam 
valde pia, quam ob pietatem poftea inquihtorius quoque ignis 
abfumplit tetri illius carceris forte data eft comes. Earn puel- 
lam ad torturam quadam die educlam, atque in carcerem a 
torturis reductam, adeo quaifatam omnibufque membrorum 
comDagibus diifolutam, ut in jnnceo le&ulo ad laborem potius 
quam ad quietem utrique concevTo, vix ac nifl magnocum cru- 
ciatu volveretur, fumma animi pietate, quando externis ofhciis 
nullus, aut certe perexiguus ibi erat locus, profequuta eft. Vix 
ilia caeperat a tortwras quaifatione convalefcere, quum ad eun- 
dem ludum ilia educitur; ibi tanta atrocitate in burro torque- 



( 26 ) 

the Fanatics reprefent their it/ward light as a better 
guide to heaven, than purity of heart and holinefs 



tnr, ut chordis ad ipfas brachiorum, femorum ac crurura tibias 
ufque penetrantibus, earceri moribunda reftitueretur, fanguine 
per os affatim e veftigio erumpente, difruptis baud dubie vif- 
ceribus, octavo demum a tortura die mortua fit. Quum ad 
earn condemnandam fufticienlia teftimonia, licet omnibus in- 
quifitoriis artibus conquifita ac procurata, defecilfent, quando 
accufata eo nata foret loco, ut negotii ipfius apud plebem 
efiet omninb aliqua reddenda ratio, neque res ullo modo dif- 
fimulari poifet, in primo triumphi actu, qui ab ipfius morte 
fuit indictus, fententiam fuampronuntiari jubent in haec verba. 
Q'uoniam haec domina in car cere abierit (fupprefiis baud dubie 
caufis) et ejus caufa infpecta et diiigenter examinata innocens 
fuerit deprehenfa, idcirco Sanctum Tribunal earn ab omnibus 
gravaminibus, per Fifcalem illi intentatis, pronuntiare liberam, 
licetque prorfus abfolutam in fua turn innocentia turn exifti- 
matione reftituere jubereque bona ipfius omnia quae in Sequeilri 
rationes venerant, eis reftitui ad quos ex jure pertinerent, &:c. 
Ac ita demum pojrquam cam in tormentis belluina truculcntia 
vecavcrunt, libcram pronuntiarunt" p. 319- 320. Let us now 
enter the chamber of torture in which the Fanatic Demons 
ufed to feaft their eyes on the favage barbarities which they 
perpetrated. " Locus torturae in Inquiiitione Hifpana, ut 
plurimum folct effe antrum quoddam fubterraneurp, ac perob- 
fcurum, ad quo,!, muhis oitiis pra-tergrcilis, peryenituj. In 
eo eft erect um tribunal, in quo Inqnintor et Provifor et Scriba 
fedent. Accenfis luisinibns et ingreffo torquendo enrnifex, 
qui alios ornnes intus jam exfpectat, inter omnes eft fpectacuio 
et contemplation- <-\'\ pius. Is totus eft co,-opertus nigra veiie 
ex lino ad pedes longa adfiri&a undique adhaerente torpori, 
caput habet velatum obi on go nigroque caperone, quo fac: 
totam contceit, rclictis duobus modi parvulis ad vifum fenef- 



of life; and they make the delirium of fenfation a 
fubftitute for integrity of chara&er. 



tellis. Hsec omnia eo tendunt, ut majore terrore concutiatur 
animo ac corpore mifellus, hac imprimis diaboli alicnjus ima- 
gine, cujus manibus torqueri debet.'' p. 321. <f Ratio autem 
torquendi et tonnentorum gradus nunc in Hifpanica Inquifi- 
tione ufitati, optime cognofci poffunt, ex hiftoria Ifaaci Orobio 
Judaei Medicinae Docr.oris, qui a quodam Mauro fervo fuo, 
ante hac ob furtum juifu fuo verberato, delatus fuit Inquifi- 
tioni quail Judoeusj et poll quadriennium ab alio inimico fuo 
de alio fatto, uncle judaeus agnofceretur, iterum delatus fuit? 
quique fe pertinacillime Judasum negavit. Hiftoriam tortura?, 
prout earn ex ore ipfi us habui, breviter hie adferibam. Poft- 
quam, integro triennio, in carcere Inquifitionis detentus fuit, 
et aliquoties examinatus, criminaque objecta ipfi mdicata, ut 
ea confiteretur,* ipfeque ea conftanter negaret, tandem ex 
carcere fuo fuit edu6tus, etjper varios anfraftus deductus, in lo- 
cum torturae. Fuit id circa vefperam. Erat locus fubterraneus, 
fads amplus, fornice ftructus, parietes undique velamine nigri 
coloris tecli j muro afnxa erant candelabra, totumque conclave 
illuminabant candelae iis impofitae. Ab una parte erat locus 
quidam camerae inftar, feparatus; illic menfae aifidebat Tnqui- 
fitor cum Notario; its ut locus hie ipfi vifus fuerit domiciiium 
mortis, tetro afpectu undequaque terribilis. Hie eum Inquifi- 
tor denuo monuit, ut veritatem confiteretur, antequam inchoa- 
rentur torment a iniius. Cum refponderet fe veritatem dixilTe, 
Inquifitor graviter protetiatus eft. quoniam ob pertinaciam ip- 
fius ad torturam deveniendum effet, S.OfBcium innoxium fore, 
fi inter torment a fanguinem emitteret aut animam efHaret. 
fiis dictis linteum corpori ipfius obductum eft, et, ab utraque 
parte, adeo violenter conftrictum, ut tandem anhelitus ipfi prae- 
cluderetur: cum jam animo dericeret, fubito lintei extremi- 
fates funt remiiTae, et cum jam denub refpirare inciperet, maxi- 

I 



( 2« ) 

21. In whatever village the Fanatics get a footing, 
drunken nefb and (wearing, — fins, which being more 



mam, ex fubita ilia mutatione, paffus eft animi auguftiam ac 
dolorem. Hoc tormento fuperato, eadem monitio repetita fait, 
fatere veritatem, antequam inchocntur tormenta tua; eaque 
monitio, fuperato quovis tormento, antequam novo exponere- 
tur, femper repetita fuit. Icaque cum in negaticne perfifteret, 
pollices illius funiculis exiguis arctiiiinie conttricti funt, adeo 
ut membra extrema admodum intumuerint, et fanguis inter 
jnncturas unguium expelleretur. Poftea muro fuit applicitus, 
€t exiguo fcabello impofitus. Muro affixae erant parvae troch- 
leas ferreae, per quas funes £ucti variis in locis corpus ejus 
ambiebant, praefertim brachia et crura : tortor, magna violcD- 
tia, funiculos ho fee trahens, corpus ipfius muro applicabatj 
interim manus ac pedes, digitique manuum ac pedum aretif- 
iime funiculis conftrreli fummo percellebantnr cruciatu, non 
aliter ac fi flammis diiiblveretur. In mediis hifce cruciatibus 
tortor fubitb fcabellum pedibus ipfius fubtraxit ; adeo ut mifer, 
fine ullo fulcimento, pependerit fanibus undique conftrictus, 
et pondere corporis funium nodos ar&ius adftringente. Mox 
novum tormenti genus fuccedit. Jnfuumentum exiguae fcv.l.e 
inftar, duobus conilans lignis ereclis, et quinque tranfveriis 
a uteri us acuminatis il!i ex adverfo oppofuit tortor, idquc, motu 
quodam accommodate, maxima vi in utrumque ejus tibiam im- 
pt git, adeo ut utraque tibia, quinque icribus fimul validiiiime 
percuiTa affiigei'etur dolore intolerabili, adeo quidem ut in ani- 
mi deliquium incident. Mox ad ie reverfo ultimum tormenti 
genus infiictum eft. Funibus brachia ejus non procul a manu 
aitricta funtj illis tortor fe implicuit, ita ut dorfo ejus corio 
munito circumduct renturj turn fen -fupinavit, pedibus quemuro 
oppofitis fumma vi fanes diftendit, donee brachiorum carneoa 
ufque ad oflfa penitus perciderh j idque tormentum ter rej 
titum eft, funibus illis duorum circiter digitorum fpatia a piioie 



( *9 > 

expofcd to the eye of the world, would be ruinous 
to their great pretenfions to fuperior fanctity, will, 
perhaps, be found to decline ; but I am convinced, 
from perfonal obfervation, that lying and difhoneily, 
that every fpecies of fraud and falfehood, — fins, which 
are not fo readily detected, but which feem more 



vulnere brachio appofitis, eademque vehementia conftrictis, 
Contigit vero, cum fecundo funes conftringerentur ut in prius 
vulnus relaberentur, unde tanta violentia fanguis eiBuxit, ut 
moriturus videretur. Mox vicino conclavi advocati funt. 
Medicus et Chirurgus, quos feraper prosfto effe oportet, ut 
iimili in cafu, fententia eorum rogetur, an, abfque mortis peri- 
culo, tortura continuari poflit, ne irregulares iiant judices ecle- 
iiaftici, ft forte reus in tormentis moriatur. llli Orobio minimi 
inimici, refpondent, virium fatis fupereffe, ad reliqua tormenta 
fuftinendum: et fie eum praefervaiant, ne tormenta jam fupe- 
rata denub inn* infligerentur, quia fententia fert, ut omnia ilia 
tormenta fucceflive uno tempore infliganturj ii ob morti.* 
periculum definendum lit. poftea rurfus omnia tormenta, etiani 
quae jam tolerata fuerant, fucceflive infliguntur ut fententiae 
fatis fiat. Mox veilibus fuis involutus, in priorem carcerem 
<leportatus eft 3 et feptuaginta dierum fpatio, vix a vulneribus 
fuis fanatus. Quoniam in tormentis nihil confefTus fuerat, 
condemnatus eft non ut Judaifmi convi&us, fed fufpeclus, ad 
infamem veftem Sanbenita, integro biennio, geftandum, eoque 
elapfoad perpetuum e regno Hifpalienfi exilium." p. 323, 324. 
I have made thefe copious extracts from Limborch, becaufe 
the reader will, I truft, find them both curious and intereftingj 
and they will probably defcribe the genius of Fanaticifm and 
the temper of Fanatics, better than the moft elaborate meta- 
phyfical differtation. 



( 3° ) 

clofely connected with worldly advantage, will be 
found, invariably, to increafe *. 

2 2. Inftead of inculcating truth, juftice, brotherly 
kindnefs, charity, all the domcftic and focial virtues, 
the Fanatics amufe their hearers with a great deal of 
whining, unintelligible cant about their " dear fouls," 
their " precious fouls;" while their bodies are cover- 



* In feveral parities, when fome of the fenfible and incor- 
rupt minifters of the eftablifhment, have been inculcating from 
the pulpit the great obligations of truth, juftice, and mercy, 
and enforcing their performance by every fanction which the 
gofpel fupplies, and every perfuafion with which an Eternity 
of good can operate on the heart, — the champions of Method- 
iim, who happen to have erected their flandard in the fame 
village, and who ufually fend two or three fpies to the parilh 
church to bring them intelligence of what has been faid, make 
a common practice of telling their audiences at the next meet- 
ing, that difcourfes on truth, and juftice, and mercy, have 
nothing to do with Chriftianity ; that moral works, being 
only filthy rags (a favourite exprefiion with thole enemies to 
goodnefs), will not conduce to their fnlvation; and that they 
mult rely on Chrift's rigbteoufnefs, without troubling them- 
ft-lves about any righteoufnefs of their own. 1 leave the reader 
to judge what effect fucb preaching, enforced by a great deal 
of cant, and often the moil confummate art, mutt have on the 
ignorant and the credulous who arc plainly told that fraud and 
falfehood are no obftructions in the way to heaven, provided 
they only go to that meeting within whofe unhallowed walls 
the Anti-Chriftian jugglers circumfcribe the capacity of fal- 
vation. 



( 3i ) 

ed with rags, incrufted with filth, or wafting with 
difeafe; — a ftate of mifery and indigence, to which 
they are too often reduced by neglecling their proper 
calling, and the reafonable worfnip of their forefa- 
thers, to liften to the pernicious jargon of fome jug- 
gling fiend, who, inflead of edifying them by the 
fimple truths, or cheering them by the fweet confola- 
lations of pure Chriftianity, ufually breathes the fleam 
of delufion on their minds, the blaft of diflenfion on 
their homes, and the anguifh of fuperftition on their 
hearts. 

03. To teach the fimple and the ignorant as the 
emiflaries of Fanaticifm teach them, that they come 
from the womb utterly difpofed to evil and indif- 
pofed to good, is in fac"l, to tell them that they are 
born with an innate propenfity to commit theft, adul- 
tery, murder, and every crime. When fuch a pre- 
pofterous and mod pernicious doctrine has been 
deeply rooted in their minds, and forcibly impreffed 
upon their hearts, it muft neceffarily exert the moil 
mifchievous influence on their cond u 61 * # 



* The Fanatics are very induftrious in eftablifhing Sunday 
fchools, in order to gangrene the principles of the country; 
and to give an unkind, unfocial Calviniftic complexion to 
the manners of the people. Sunday fchools are, in many vil- 
lages, the fuccefsful medium of inftilling the poifon of Me- 
tfiodiftic immorality into the young and innocent. 



( 32 ) 

/ 24* By teaching people as the Scripture, from the 
/ beginning to the end, encourages us to teach them, 
• that they are born with a faculty to difcern good 
/ from evil, and with a capacity to choofe which they 
I pleafe, by teaching them that the hrft is their happi- 
r nefsj and the laft their mifery; that the firft is their 
r glory, and the laft their fhame; by teaching them 
I that God will punifh the one, and reward the otherj 
1 and that if they will, with fincerity, exert their natural 
j power to do good, the favour of God will ajjift them 
fin the performance, we certainly are more likely to 
\ make them (for we take a more reafonable and fcrip- 
I tural method of making them) fober, honed, and 
I true, of exciting the love of virtue, and the detefta- 
ttation of vice, than by imprefTing them with a belief 
I that they bring into the world a conftitution imbued 
I with every evil, and devoid of every good propen- 

, \ fity *. By the firft, we excite their endeavours to 



* " Sin," fays Jeremy Taylor, " creeps upon nsin our educa- 
tion fo tacitly and undifcernibly, that we miftake the caufe of 
it; and yet fo prevalently and effectually, that we judge it to be 
our very nature, and charge it upon Adam, to lcjjcn the Imputation 
upon ?is, or to incrcafc the licence or the confidence; when every 
one of us is the Adam, the man of sin and the parent of our 
own impurities." Life of Chriit, fol. ed. 1O7S, p. 08. — Thofe 
Fanatics who are the molt zealous fticklers for the doctrine of 
original (in, are always mod remarkable for perfonal depravity. 
Rejoicing in the toothing vanity of imputed righteoufnefs, or 
patiently enduring the wounds and bruifes and putrefying 



( 33 ) 

do good, by the laft we increafe their inclination to ' 
do evils by the firft we animate the conference toj 



fores of imputed guilt, they feel themfelves liberated from all 
the reftraints of truth in their words, and all the reftraints of 
honefty in their actions. 

The doctrine of original corruption is, indeed, infome degree, 
fanctioned by the ninth article ; but that article admits of aa 
explanation, that will entirely do away the rniichievoufnefs of 
the doctrine; and it muft be remarked that the doctrine itfelf 
is not at prefent, and never has been fince the reftoration, the 
belief of the great majority, and particularly of the moft learn- 
ed and upright members of the Church of England. And 
though the doctrine mould be more exprefsly authorized by the 
articles than it appears to me to be, yet it cannot well be called 
the doctrine of the Church of England, when it is not the doc- 
trine of the majority of the members, who compofe that church. 
For we muft remember that the Church of England is not 
a non -entity, or an immaterial abftraction, but a vinble, palpa- 
ble, corporeal reality. It is not a dead but a living body. 
When therefore we with to afcertain the true doctrine and 
belief of the Church of England, we are not to inquire fo much 
what ivas the doctrine and belief of its clergy in pad ages, as 
what is the do&rine and the belief of the clergy, or the church, 
at the prefent day. That which ivas the doctrine and belief 
of the clergy in paft ages, was the doctrine and belief of the 
church in their time j and that which is the doctrine and belief 
of the clergy in this age, is the doctrine and belief of the church 
in our time: for a church is not only a mafs of brick and mor- 
tar, or of ftone and fand, but a collection of faithful men, warm 
with animation and life, inculcating the duties of the gofpel, 
and iuftructing the people in the way of vighteoufnefs. The 
fermons of a clergyman of the prefent day may not entirely 
accord with the tenets of the majority of the Clergy who lived 

D 



( 34 ) 

'ftruggle againfl. iniquity, by the lad, we only deprcii 
1 the fpirics, and make the natural frame of man, 



two hundred years ago, and Co far may differ from the doctrintf 
of the Church of England two hundred years ago; and yet 
they may not differ from the preaching of the great majority 
of the clergy in his own time; and therefore may be conform- 
able to the doctrine of the church in his own time ; for as the 
majority of the living members, and particularly the moft 
learned, upright, and judicious members of the Church of Eng- 
land, conftitute the Church of England, they may, without 
formally repealing any of the articles, put any conftruction 
upon them which they think bell; and that conftruction is 
the legal doctrine of the church in their time; and, in that 
fenfe, and according to that conftruction, the articles may and 
ought to be fubferibed; and he, who thus fubferibes them, 
maintains what it is fonecelTary to maintain, an unity of doctrine 
with the majority of his brethren ; and is, confcquenlly, a better 
friend to the Church of England, than he is ivho ?nay fubferibe 
the articles in a fenfe more agreeable to the letter, but more adverfe 
to the general conf ruction of the clergy ; and confcquenlly to the 
received doctrine of the Church. As the Church of England is 
not an union of dead men but of living, an unity of doctrine 
muft mean not an accord of opinions with the dead fo much 
as an accord of opinions among the living; and as the en 
of the Church of England ought not to be coofidertd in any 
other light than the general creed of its living teachers, thole 
who oppofe that creed, though they may maintain opinions 
more congenial to the articles, yet, as the opinions which tl 
maintain, are holtilc to thofe of the great corporate body of 
the eftabliihment, they muft be confidered rather as foes than 
as friends to the real interells of the church to which they 
long. Confider this, ye Evangelical pre sad take fcO 



( 35 ) 

Which muft be the work of God, an invincible argu- f 
ment for the practice of unrighteoufnefs.; 



yourfelves the reproaches with which ye are fo eager to opprefs 
the reputation of others. 

As the framers of the articles were fallible men, they were 
liable to err 5 and as it is probable that, in fome few inftances, 
they have erred through ignorance or prejudice, they cannot 
be deemed infallible expofitors of fcripture, We are not to 
interpret the fcripture by the articles ; but the articles by the v 
fcripture. Subfcription to the articles, by no means divefis 
any minifter of the Church of England of all right of private 
judgment ; but every clergyman would be dripped of this ina- 
lienable right, if he were compelled to make the articles the 
excluftve interpreters of tbeChriftian doctrines, the ftandard of 
their purity, and the meafure of their truth. In this cafe, we 
had better throw the whole mafs of commentators, and fcholi- 
afts, and critics into the fire"; and even, inflead of ftudying the 
fcriptures themfeives, fludy nothing but the articles; to whofe 
dogmas we mould bow our heads and bend our knees. We 
muft either furrender ourfelves pafiive flaves to the verdict of 
the articles 5 or we muft allow thofe, who fubferibe them, the 
right of private judgment 3 and, if private judgment be allow- 
ed, we muft concede to individuals the privilege of differing 
from the articles on any topics, in which thofe articles appear 
to them to differ from the fcripture. The articles themfelves 
do not appear to me to deny any one this right ; for the iixth 
article fays, " Holy fcripture containeth all things necerTary to 
iaivation ;fo thai 'whatfo&oer is not read therein, nor may he proved 
thereby, is nut required of any man, that it Ihould be believed as 
an article of the faith, or be thought requifite or neceffary tofal- 
vation." Here the framers of the articles undoubtedly intended ' 
to- give a tacit permiiTiun to the exercife of private judgment; 
and to that freedom of inquiry which is fubfervient to the belt 

D 2 



( 3« ) 

25. That man does poflcfs a capacity either to do 
good or evil, and which the fall did not deftroy, may 



interefts of religion. In the twenty-fir ft article, the framers 
filently confefs their own fallibility, when they fay, that general 
councils may err, and fo?nelh?ies have erred, in things pertaining t* 
God. 

Religious knowledge, like knowledge of other kinds, is cer- 
tainly progreflive; and its progrefs has been very rapid of late 
years. The ancient languages are better understood, the man- 
ners and cuftoms of the eaft have been more accurately invef- 
tigated, and, above all, a more juft, and liberal, and Chriftian 
mode of thinking has taken place. Controverfy is conducted 
with more moderation ; and animated by a more enlightened 
criticifm. The framers of the articles were wife and enlieht- 
ened men for the age in which they lived; but they did not 
poffefs fagacity to anticipate the difcoveries and improvements 
of future ages ; nor ought we to fuffer their decifions to render 
thofe difcoveries fruitlefs, or thofe improvements vain. 

The fcriptures cannot be properly interpreted without the 
exercife of our rational powers; and we are exprefsly enjoined 
to ftudy the fcriptures ourfelves, and not be contented with let- 
ting others ftudy them for us. We are not to embrace a doc- 
trine, merely becaufe other fallible men, like ourfelves, have 
embraced it before us ; but becaufe we, on mature inquiry, be- 
lieve it to be a fcriptural do<5crine. Chrift only is the mafter 
of our confeience upon earth; and we are to call no man mafter 
but Chrift. We are not to abandon our private judgment in 
religious matters; but are impartially and diligently to fearch 
the fcriptures. This is the fovereign duty of every man who 
undertakes to inftruct others in the way of righteoufnefs ; and 
no fubfeription to any articles upon earth can invalidate the 
obligation or fuperfede the practice. We are to pay all juft 
and reafonable deference to the articles; and to the authority 
of thofe great and good men who framed them 3 but their de- 



( 37 ) 

be proved by the plain and incontrovertible autho- 
rity of Scripture, which no mutilated or perverted 



ci lions are no mcafure for our confciences 5 and their autho- 
rity is to be lefs valued than that of Chrift. 

The framers ; of the articles lived at a period when mankind 
were j uft emerging from ages of the grofteft ignorance, and 
the moft oppreflive fuperftition. They had befides, for the 
molt part, been nurtured in Popifh prejudices j and though 
thofe prejudices had undergone a violent revolution ; yet fome 
portion of their influence feems to have remained ; and which 
probably operated filenlly and imperceptibly on the conclu- 
fions which they drew, and the doctrines which they taught. 
The impreflions of youth are fcldom, perhaps never, entirely 
effaced. We muft alfo confider that the framers of the arti- 
cles living in a period when the human mind, difcerning the 
impofture which the court of Home had pradtifed on it for fo 
many ages, began to throw off the chains of fuperftition, and 
when, as might be expected, the moft diflbnant opinions pre- 
vailed on the moft important doctrines, had a moft difficult 
tafk to execute, in order to fteer clear of all extremes; and it 
muft be confeflfed that they finiihed their work with lingular 
ability and moderation. Though they yielded, as prudent men 
will always yield, to the fpirit and genius of the times in which 
they lived, yet comprehenfion and charity are very remarkable 
in their decifions. But though, when I compare the exem- 
plary moderation and good fenfe which the fathers of the Eng- 
lifh Proteftant Eftabliinment difplayed in the formation of 
the articles, with the darknefs and intolerance of the age in 
which they lived, I am ready to pafs the higheft encomiums 
en their wifdom and their mildnefs5 yet I am far from think- 
ing that their notions jn theology ought or were intended to 
bind their fucceflbrs to the end of time. This would be to 
fufFer them to eftablifh that dominion over the minds and con- 

D3 



( 33 ) 

texts that Fanaticifm can adduce, or fophiftry c 
combine, can fet afide. 



fciences of the minifters of the gofpel, from which they had 
refolutely attempted, and happily accompliihed their own 
emancipation. 

There is a general ufage in matters ecciefiaiiical as well as 
civil, which abolifhes fome laws, without formally repealing 
them, and eflablimes others, without formally enacting them. 
A law,- like many in the Englffh ftatutes, is often furTered to 
die a peaceful death. The power of enforcing it is not taken 
away ; but general difufe fufpends its operations; and it be- 
comes as if it did not exilt. None of the articles of the Church 
of England have been formally repealed ; but it is very certain, 
that the literal fenie of foraie of them has been, in a great mea- 
fure, explained away by the conftructions, and, if I may fo 
exprefs it, abrogated by the unanimous confent of the moft 
illuitrious divines. In the writings of Jeremy Taylor, Barrow, 
Tillotfon, Clark, Whitby, Jeffery, Butler, Warburton, Balguy, 
and other ornaments of the Church of England, we meet with 
many paflages, which indirectly attack the fpirit, and with 
others which are cirectly contrary to the plain fenie and letter 
of the articles. 

Now, the practice of the greateft divines gives to other 
members of the Church of England the privilege of diflenting 
and a right to diiTent from thofe articles which they oppofed; 
and which the majority of the living Clergy, whofe animated 
bodies conftitute the corporate legal reality, and whofe avowed 
opinions conflitute the attual doctrine of the church, do not 
approve. A literal repeal of any of the articles might, per- 
haps, in the prefent temper of the times, be productive of more 
evil than good ; but a filent repeal of them, luch as has taken 
place, is calculated to produce great advantage without any 
material inconvenience. 



( 39 ) 

s6. In Genefis iv. y 3 the Lord is reprefented as 
faying to Cain, whofe jealoufy was provoked by the 



It will be faid, that oaths are to be taken in the fenfe in 
which they are adminiftered. This is certainly true in moft: 
cafes ; but it will not hold good in cafes where oaths are ad- 
miniftered in terms, an which very different covjiruclions 7/iay 
eonfcientioujly befut; and are ufually confcientiotifly put by 
the different perfons whom they are adminiftered. Thus, if, 
for inftance, every clergyman were obliged to fubfcribe to 
the articles in the fenfe in which the oath of fubfcription is 
adminiftered to him, the conftruction of the fame articles by 
the fame perfon, might be made to change feveral times in his 
life, in order that it might tally with the contraction of the 
different parties, before whom the oath of fubfcription might 
be taken. Thus, if a perfon were to be ordained deacon by a 
Calviniftic bithop, he mull fubfcribe the articles in one fenfe, 
and. if ordained prieft by an Arminian bifhop (fuch as a great 
majority of the Englifh bifhops are), he muft fubfcribe them 
in a different. Before the firft he muft fwear to believe in 
the doctrine of abfolute perfonal election and reprobation, 
&c. &c. and before the laft he muft fwear that he does not 
believe any fuch things. To avoid thefe embarraffments, and 
this impiety, it feems right that the articles thould be fub- 
fcribed, not in that fpecific fenfe in which they are underftood 
and believed by the perfon who adminifters the oath of fub- 
fcription, but either in that particular fenfe which is moft 
agreeable to the confcience of the individual who fubfcribes, 
or in that general fenfe which is to be collected from the 
writings of the moft learned and judicious members of the 
Church of England who are dead, and its moft learned and 
judicious members who are living. No falfehood can be prac- 
tifed where there is no intention to deceive on the one handy and 
where nobody is deceived on the other. Thofe who are fo for- 

D 4 



( 4° ) 

diftinguifhing marks of the divine favour, 'which 
Abel had received, " If thou doeft zvell, Jhalt thou not 



ward to caft the raoft flanderous imputations on the veracity 
of the Clergy, would do well to confider this obfervation : 

It is not to be fuppofed, that the minifters of the Church of 
England mould ever agree in the conftru&ion, or unite in the 
belief of thirty-nine proportions, fome of which relate to quef- 
tions the moll dark and difficult in the whole compafs of hu« 
man inquiry; queftions, too, which agitate the hopes and the 
fears of men; their deareft interefts and their fondeft expecta- 
tions; queftions, in the difcuflion of which, the wifeft may be 
perplexed, and the fearlefs be difmayed. On many abftrufe 
and intricate topics in theology, men of the fevereft probity, 
the greateft penetration, of profound refearch, and various eru- 
dition, have often differed from each other, and have as often 
differed from themfelves at different periods of their lives. 
Any man may give an affurance of what his belief has been 
for the paft; but, on any matters of uncertain fpeculation, no 
man can fafely or confcientioufly ftipulate what his belief fhall 
be for the future. If any man mould undertake to think on 
any doubtful queftion ten years hence in precifely the fame 
manner that he does at prefent, he undertakes more than he 
can perform; and no one is bound to impofiible conditions. 

A man's prefent belief, as far as it is rational and fincere, 
muft be always determined by the weight of evidence ; and it 
will vary as the evidence varies; it will grow ftronger as the 
evidence grows more convincing ; and it will become weaker 
as the evidence decreafes; or as the probabilities in favour of 
a contrary opinion are increafed. On any doubtful queftions, 
which admit of degrees of proof, or of probability, an honed 
and rational man will embrace that fide of the queftion, in fa- 
vour of which the proofs are the ftrongeft ; or the probabilities 
preponderate. Thus a degree of evidence, which at one period 



( 41 .) 

fa accepted-, and if thou dceft net well,Jhi lieth at the 
door" Here God himfelf, not long after the fall, 



of life feems fufficient to determine the choice and to fix 
the aflent may appear inefficient at another. No man can 
bind over his confeience to believe, or his reafon to fupport 
what he now believes, all the reft of his life ; and no power on 
earth can give him the capacity to do it ; or take from him the 
right of not doing it. The attempt would be as vain and 
fruitlefs, not to fay as impious, as an attempt to fetter the 
winds, or to ftill the waves. 

The knowledge of every man who reads and thinks, as every 
clergyman ought to read and to think, is and muft be in a 
•ftate of continual progreflionj and of courfe his opinions on 
many matters of doubtful speculation may undergo many 
changes, without any change taking place in the purity of his 
confeience, or the integrity of his heart 5 without any diminu- 
tion of his regard for the church of which he is a member; 
or any deduction from his ufefulnefs as one of its minifters.— 
To diffufe a fpirit of good will between man and man, to con- 
ciliate the affections of the people to the government, and to 
awaken in the government an attention to the interefts of the 
people} to promote the growth of all the domeftic and all the 
focial virtues, to melt the obdurate and to confirm the peni- 
tent, to raife the weak hands and to ftrengthen the feeble 
knees, to animate the righteous and to direct the eyes of the 
wretched to the realms of immortality;— -thefe are the great, 
and noble, and worthy ends, and ufes of an eftablifhed church; 
and thefe ends may be obtained, and this good may be pro- 
duced, where there is not an uniformity of opinions among its 
minifters on topics of doubtful inquiry; or where fomeof them 
fubferibe the thirty-nine articles in their plain literal fenfe, 
and others in one that is totally different. 

In thefe remarks, in which I have fpoken my mind clearly 



( 42 ) 

exprefily intimates that Cain had a power to choofc 
cither good or evil; and that his happinefs depended 
on the choice which he mould make. In conformity 
to this pafiage: St. John fays, i Ep. iii. 12, thatCain's 
works were evil; andthoje of his brother's righteous. But 
had the fall To far vitiated the nature of man, as to have 
ingenerated a permanent difpofition to evil, and in- 
difpofition to good, the works of Abel muft have been 
as unrighteous as thofe of his brother. In Genefis vi. 
5, it is teflified of Noah, " that he was ajuft man, and 
$erfe5f> and walked zvith God-," — a character totally 
incompatible with the fuppofition, that the fall ren- 
dered human nature vicious and unfound to the very 



and intelligibly, but I truft with becoming moderation, my with 
is to defend the great and good Anti-Calviniftic majority of the 
Clergy againft the malicious afperfions of the Calviniftic mi- 
nority; and to vindicate the rights of the former to freedom of 
opinion, and freedom of inquiry; rights, which the latter, who 
are enemies to truth and feafon, would willingly take away. 
I love, I venerate the Church of England with all her imper- 
fections. Though I am not fo warm an admirer as to panegy- 
rife her wrinkles ; or fo infatuated a lover as to imagine that 
her freckles add to her beauty ; yet I am confeious that the has 
qualities which deferve the etieem of her friends, and the re- 
fpect of her enemies. If her faults be many, they are greatly 
exceeded by her virtues. And who is there, even among her 
bittereft foes, who can cenfure the fimplicity of her rites or 
the folemnity of her fervice? Who is there, not callous to 
every emotion of piety, that will not laud the beauty of her 
liturgy, the devotion with which it glows, and the charity 
which it infpires? 



( 43 ) 

core. Of job, it is faid that he was <c perfeil and 
upright, one that feared God, and ef chewed evil" and, in 
another pailage, God himfelf is reprefented as calling 
Job u a p erf eft and an upright man, one that f ear eth God> 
and ejchev:eth evil." S u reiy nothing can more ftrongly 
prove St. Auftin's favourite doctrine of innate cor- 
ruption to be unfcriptural and erroneous; for had 
Adam's guilt been infufed into his potlerity, fo as to 
produce a continual averfion to good, and an unceas- 
ing converiion to evil, there could not, after the firft 
tranfgreffion, have been a (ingle perfect and upright 
man upon the whole face of the earth. But as there 
have been, fince the fall, feveral perfect and upright 
men who feared God, and efchewed evil, thefe exam- 
ples prove, that men were under no natural or innate 
biats to unrighteoufnefs; and that there were fo many 
finners in the world, not becaufe fin was a mechani- 
cal neceffity, but becaufe men grofsly ahufed their ca- 
pacity to do good, and not to do evil. In A els x. we 
read of Cornelius, a centurion, " a. devout man, and 
one that feared God with all his houfej who gave 
much alms to the people, and prayed to God always." 
Indeed, in all ages and among all nations, there 
have been righteous as well as wicked j there have 
been fome who have obeyed, though there have been 
more who have tranfgrefled the law written on their 
hearts; the law whofe practice realbn approves, and 
whofe obligations confeience feels. 

27. If God be a moral governor, man muft be a 

6 



( 44 ) 

moral agent; that is, capable of choofing good or 
evil; for, without fuch a capacity, human actions 
would be no more fufceptible of the relations of mo- 
rality, than the movements of a machine. Moral 
agency confifts in the voluntary •preference of good to 
evil, or of evil to good; and without which, God can- 
not be, with refpect to man, a moral governor; for 
the notion of a moral government is incompatible 
with that of a mechanical neceflity. But the doctrine 
of original fin, which is taught by the Fanatics, de- 
flroys the moral government of God; for man could 
not make a voluntary election between good and 
evil, if he were, from the womb, indifpofed to good, 
and difpofed to evil. 

2,8. As the notions of original fin, which are en- 
tertained by the Fanatics, invalidate the moral go- 
vernment of God, they mud, of courfe, take away 
all motives to righteoufnefs and devotion, to obedi- 
ence and adoration. If God be not a moral gover- 
nor, he mud be a carclefs fpectator of human actions, 
indifferent to vice or virtue; and hence mankind 
could cherifh no hope of conciliating his favour; and 
need entertain no dread of exciting his difpleafure. 
For, once fet afide the belief of God's moral govern- 
ment ; and all actions, as they refpect the relations 
between God and man, become alike. They lofc 
the characleriftic dillinctions of good and evil; and 
God himfelf ceafes to be an object worthy of reli- 
gious adoration. For we might as well worfliip 



( 45 ) 

wood and (lone, as a God who docs not concern 
himfelf about us ; and who, whatever may be our 
conduct towards him, regards us neither with pleafure 
nor difpleafure, with fondnefs nor averfion. What 
emotions of piety, of hope or fear, of love and gra- 
titude, could the worfhip of fuch a being kindle in 
the foul? 

29. The great and glorious attribute of God, the 
excellence of his excellencies, the perfection of his 
perfections, is his gecdnefs-, that goodnefs which is 
every where manifefted in the works of creation ; and 
in the pages of fcripture. But the genius of Fana- 
ticifm obfeures the unclouded funihine of the divine 
glory; for it fuppofes that God conftituted all the 
generations of men finners, appointed to damnation 
before they were born ; and that of all thofe who 
come into the world, only a very fmall portion is 
elected to falvation, while millions and millions are 
created on purpofe to be tormented for ever in fire 
and brimftone. This doctrine, which is not more 
replete with abfurdity than with blafphemy, ap- 
proaches nearer to the chilling fyftem of the Atheift, 
than to the cheering doctrine of the gofpel. The 
Atheift denies the exiftence of God ; the Fanatic 
annihilates the fuppofition of his goodnefs; and what 
fentient and intelligent being is there who would not 
prefer no God at all to a God without goodnefs ? 
Strip God of his goodnefs, and the imagination in- 
ftantly rcprefents the Deity as a Devil; for the divine 



( 46 ) 

power, abftracled from that goodnefs, which dirtcl 
its operations, excites fenfations more allied to trem- 
bling abhorrence, than to thrillins; love. 

30. What is the precife nature ofjufUce, 2s it re- 
fpecls the government of God, it may be difficult to 
define; but on this, I think, we may fafely rely, 
that the proceedings of God towards man will not be 
fuch as might reafonably be accufed of injuftice, if 
they were the proceedings of one man towards ano- 
ther. Our notions of jutlice are, for the mod part, 
dirtincl and clear; and in which we feldom err, unlefs 
from the abufe of reafon or the contempt of con- 
fciencc. Our fenfations themieives, in a meafure, 
teach us to diftinguifh juftice from injuftice; andihat 
fenfe of right, which is either innate in the heart, or 
which the lead exercife of reafon will diicover, will 
prevent any considerable miftake in queftions which 
fo nearly concern our own intereft, and the intereft 
of our fellow-creatures. Now, we cannot i> nc 
that God, in his dealings with us, will act contrary 
to thole principles of jultice which he has made 
evident to the mind, and fo genial to the heart; and 
which he has, moreover, exprefsly cor to 

obferve in our conduct towards each other. his 

opofition would make God act contrary to i *n 

will and his own decrees. No rood and wife 
who impofes laws on others will violate them himfelf; 
nor can we, for a moment beHeve 3 that God would 
ordain laws, to which he hi mil k would not co n. 



( 47 ) 

If God tell man to do no wrong to his brother man, 
we may fafely truft that He will not tranfgrefs his 
own decrees by doing wrong to mankind. — But the 
perverfe and wicked doctrine of the Fanatics fup- 
pofes that God is fallible, and inconuflent with him- 
felf; that he does not conform to his own laws, and 
does not abide by his own decrees *. According to 
our fenfe of right and wrong, which is the gift of 
God, and according to the fpirit and to the letter of 
God's laws, it would be an ad of outrageous cruelty 
in any human lawgiver, to punifh a man for crimes 
which he never committed, or to hang him for a rob- 
bery which was perpetrated by one of his remote 
progenitors; and in the guilt of which his defendants 
could not be involved. If any human legiflator 
fhould attempt to put in practice fuch an opprefllve 
fentence, it would revolt every heart; and every 
hand would be raifed to refift the execution. If it 
would be unjuft in any human tribunal to put the 
innocent in the place of the guilty, a fimilar con- 
duct, if practifed by God, would be contrary to the 
laws of juftice, which he ordained; and it would be 
reprobated by that fenfe of right and wrong, which 
his goodnefs imparted to us ; and by which we dif- 
tinguilh good from evil, and mercy from oppreiiion. 



* The laws of God are the emanations of his wifdom, of his 
juftice, and his goodnefs; and God can no more a fit contrary 
to them, than he can act contrary to wifdom, to juftice, and to 
good Daft. 



( 4« ) 

3'. There feems no propofition in theology more 
clear than this ; that God prefers the righteous to the 
finner; that thofe who keep his laws are the objects 
of his regard, and thofe who violate them, of his dif- 
pleafure. But if all men were, according to the hy- 
pothefis of the Fanatics, inherently and radically vi- 
cious, utterly indifpofed to good, and difpofed to evil, 
they would all be, in refpect to moral qualities, on 
the fame level, and one could have no better claim 
to preference than another. Whence then do the 
fcriptures aflure us, that God does prefer fome to 
others; the juft to the unjuft; for if human nature 
were as corrupt as the Fanatics reprefent it, there 
could be none that did good, or efchewed evil ; and, 
in this cafe, God would be made to prefer one in- 
dividual to another without a caufe for preference. 
Such reafoning, with refpecl to God, is impious and 
abfurd. 

32. If fome individuals be more the objects of 
God's love than others, it muft be becaufe fome ex- 
cel in moral qualities more than others; for a differ- 
ence in moral qualities can alone form a ground of 
preference in the fight of the moral Governor of the 
world. If moral qualities do form a ground of pre- 
ference, and if God do, as the fcriptures fully aflert, 
prefer fome men to others on this account, then all men 
cannot be equally finners, or equally difpofed to evil, 
and indifpofed to good; for this fuppofuion would 
leave no motivt for a reafonable preference; ami wt 



( 49 ) 

cannot fuppofe the preference of God to be unrea- 
fonable. 

33. But the Fanatics will pretend, that, though all 
men are born finners, fome are made righteous by 
the fpecial appointment of God; that, though all the 
defendants of Adam do come into the world, reek- 
ing with pollution, and infected with guilt to the very 
core, God does, of his own free will, give to fome 
few chofen people, his own eleff, a power to become 
righteous, which he denies to others. But this fup- 
pofition will not bear examination ; for it makes the 
Father of Spirits act with the fullennefs of bigotry or 
the wantonnefs of caprice, arbitrarily creating fome 
for happinefs and others for damnation. 

34. If God give to fome a power to be righteous 
which he withholds from others, this power muft be 
either a conditional or an unconditional gift, either 
granted with or without any endeavour to obtain ir. 
1{ it be an unconditional grant, then, as fome are 
made righteous by a divine appointment, others are 
made finners by a divine appointment; — that is, they 
are made righteous againft their will, and finners 
without their choice. This is entirely to confound 
and to deftroy the diitincUons of good and evil: for, 
without changing the language of morals, and abo- 
lifhing every notion of right and wrong, a man can 
no more be called a finner, who is made fo without 
his concurrence, or righteous, who becomes fo againft 

E 



( So ) 

his Inclination, than he could be called black who is 
born white, or white who is born black. 

35. If the divine fuccour, by which people become 
righteous, be a conditional grant, if any previous 
moral exertion be requifite to obtain it, or any pre- 
vicus moral fltnefs to receive it, then righteoufnefs 
and unrighteoufnefs become very diftincT: things; for 
the will is inftrumental in their production ; and there 
is a caufe for preference in the one which is wanting 
in the other. The firft, by a certain congruity which 
feems invariably obferved in the economy of the 
moral world, deferves the divine favour; and, by 
the fame congruity, the lad incurs the divine dif- 
pleafure. To the firft, which doeth good, belong 
glory, and honour, and immortality; while tribulation 
and anguifh are awarded to the laft, becaufe it doeth 
evil. But the fuppofition, that the divine favour, 
which flrengthens the feeble and refrefhes the faint, 
is a conditional grant, is totally incompatible with that 
fyftem, which the fanguinary zealot of Geneva ef- 
poufed, and which fucceeding Fanatics have fupport- 
ed. According to their doctrine, men are made 
righteous againft their will, and wicked without theii 
choice ; and God vouchfafes his regard to fome which 
he denies to others; not becaufe the former vfc their 
utmoft endeavours to obtain it which the latter do 
not ufe, but becaufe He acts without motives, dif- 
tinguifhes without a caufe of diftinftion^ prefers with- 
out any reafon for preference, punifhes where there 



( 5* ) 

is no guilt, and rewards where there is no integrity. 
Such are the blafphemies which the Fanatics utter 
againft the Mod High ! 

36. That the Fanatics fhould make fo many con- 
verts, is little to be wondered, when weconfider how 
agreeable their doctrines are to fiefh and blood, and 
on what eafy terms they promile an eternity of biifs 
to the dupes of their impofturc. They throw wide 
the gates of heaven to the finner; and fhut them 
againfi: the righteous. Their religion is popular and 
pleafing, becaufe it requires fo little felf-denial. 
'With (hem falvation depends on the impulfes of feel- 
ings j with us it is the confequence of righteous habit. 
With them repentance is a miraculous infufion; with 
us it is a forrow for fin, generating newnefs of life. 
With them one tranfport of the nerves, beating with 
devotional extravagance, is more likely to lift the fin- 
ner to heaven, than a whole life fpent in the practice 
of virtue. Great religious formality, great aufterity 
in the manner, and great fanclity in the look canonize 
their faints; while we reckon among the juft, only 
thofe, who pofTefs that inward purity which cleanfes 
the thoughts, and that goodnefs which is manifeft in 
the conduct. The Fanatics reft their entire hopes 
on the fiction of imputed righteoufnefsj but while 
we judge the blood of the atonement the only caufe 
of our falvation, we think that it is not that blood of 
fprinkling by which individuals will be faved from 
the wrath to come, unlefs it purify their fouls from 

E 2 



( 52 ) 

affualjin, and render them a peculiar people zea- 
lous of good works. The Fanatics think grace 
neccflary to perfeverance in righteoufnefs ; and we 
think the fame; but they fuppofe grace irrefiftible; 
while we think that it may be quenched; they fay 
that it operates againft, we afTei t that it works in con- 
junction with, our will ; and that it is a talent which 
will be withdrawn if it be not turned to a good ac- 
count. Their doctrine is a chaos of myftery; in 
which the wife and the foolifh are alike bewildered ; 
cur doctrine is plain, and artlefs, and intelligible ; 
which the fimple cannot miftake ; and the way -faring 
man may underftand. The religion which we preach 
meliorates the heart; theirs only inflames the paffions. 
We addrefs the understanding •, they agitate the in- 
temperance of the imagination. We are fedulous to 
promote active ufefulnefs; they excite only a barren 
confidence or a comfortlefs defpondency. Our fyftem 
is favourable to the growth of virtue and of happinefs; 
theirs tends to the increafe of vice and mifery. We 
deliver thofe inflructions which are fitted to make 
good hufbands, good fathers, good children, which 
encourage all that is amiable in domeftic, and all that 
is upright in civil life; while the counfels which they 
give, and the lefTons they teach, produce either a 
fullen indifference, or a fierce contempt for all thofe 
ties which are the deareft to the heart, and the moll 
binding on the confeience. 



RELIGION WITHOUT CANT. 



Man was a free agent , accountable for his a Bions before 
the fatly and has continued Jo ever Jince. 



T , That man was made an accountable being at 
the beginning, and that he has continued Co ever 
fince, is a truth which the fcriptures fully eftablifh; 
and to which good and wife theologians of all ages 
have aflented. 

a. An accountable being means, a being endued 
with a capacity to difcern good from evil, and refpon- 
fible for the ufe of it. T he right ufe of this capa- 
city conftitutes religious obedience; the wrong ufe of 
it conftitutes difobedience or impiety, 

3. As we pofTefs a capacity to difcern good from 
evil, that capacity is a law of our natures which we 
could have derived only from him who gave us this 

e 3 



( 54 ) 

mortal life, and placed us in this probationary world. 
To prefer moral good to moral evil, is to obey the 
law of our rational nature; as to prefer phyfical good 
to phyfical evil, oleafure to pain, and food to hunger, 
is to obey the law of our animal conftitution. To 
obey the law of our rational nature, or rightly toufe 
our capacity of difcerning good from evil, is to obey 
the will of God ; who gave us the capacity and made 
us reiponfible for the exercife. 

4. If we are conftituted beings, accountable for 
the morality of our actions, or, in other words, for 
the conformity of our conduct to the law of our ra- 
tional nature which is the will of God, it follows, 
that we pofTefs not only the faculty of difcerning good 
from evil, but alfo the free ufe of it, in choofing 
either the one or the other, as it fecmeth to us belt; 
in either conforming or not conforming our actions 
to the law of our rational nature, or the will of our 
Creator. We cannot be accountable for impoflibili- 
ties. We cannot be refponfible to the Judge of all the 
earth for not ufing that which we do not pofTefs ; or 
which is not fubject to the will, or the rational fa- 
culty of man. 

5. We either do pofTefs the faculty of difcerning 
between good and evil, or we do not pofTefs it. If 
we do not pofTefs it, we cannot be called to account 
for not exerting the energies of a nonentity j if we do 
pofTefs it, we muft pofTefs the power of calling it into 



C 55 ) 

action. If we poflefTed the faculty of difcerning good 
from evil, or of diftinguifhing between the nature 
and tendencies, the happy and unhappy confequences 
of certain actions, and yet did not poflefs the faculty 
of voluntarily exerting it, we could not be accounta- 
ble for the voluntary exertion of it. If #c pofleflcd a 
power of diftinguifhing between fweet and bitter, 
between things noxious and things innocent, between 
poifons and their antidotes, and yet when fugar and 
gall, when a loaf of bread and a ftone> when a fifh 
and a ferpent were fet before us, we did not poflefs 
the power of reaching out our hands and taking that 
which we knew to be good and wholefome and nu- 
tritious, in preference to that which we knew to be 
deftructive, the power of diftinction would beufelefs; 
becaufe it could not be exercifed; and, in this cafe, 
would it not be tyrannical, that we fhould be punifti- 
ed for not exercifing it ? In the fame manner, if we 
poflefs a power of difcerning moral good from moral 
evil without the faculty of exerting it, the not exert- 
ing it cannot juftly be laid to our charge by a rea- 
fonable being, fuch as God mud be. 

6. If, therefore, we do not poflefs the faculty of dif- 
cerning between good and evil and next of choofing 
between them, we cannot be accountable for oui ac- 
tions. And if we be not accountable for our actions* 
then there is no fuch thing as a law of our rational na 
ture, to which our conduct fhould be conformable ; for, 
in this cafe, it would be a law, firft, which we could not 

E 4 



know, and next which we could not obey. It would, 
therefore, be no law at all 5 for how can that be a law 
to us, or a law which we can be required to obey, or 
refponfible for not obeying, either whofe obligations 
we do not know, or which the Iawg ; ver himfelf has, 
by a conftrahit on our nature, prevented us from obey- 
ing, and determined us to violate ? Such a fuppofi- 
tion would be to make human nature and the whole 
economy of the moral world a fyflcm of abfurdity, 
and the. author of it a capricious demon, characterifed 
by injuftice, and delighting in torture. Such are the 
inconfiftencies and impieties into which thoie per- 
fons are neceffarily carried who maintain that man 
is, from the womb, utterly indifpofed to good and 
difpofed to evil; and meriting eternal damnation for 
a tranfgreflion to which he was noc accefTary; which 
he had neither power to choofe or to refufe, to per- 
petrate or to prevent. 

7. As the advocates for the loathfome doctrine 
of hereditary corruption pretend that the fall de- 
itroyed the capacity of man to do good, and left him 
nothing but a capacity to do evil, that it extinguimed 
the life of religion in the foul, that it eftranged all 
his affeclions from the law of God, and imprefled on 
his difpofition and habits an irrefiftible bias to all 
manner of iniquity, let us carefully examine the brief 
and, probably, in Jome degree, allegorical account*, 

* Le Clerc fays, <f banc hiftoriam nafcentis orbis, licet fim- 
plici contcxtaui, ut videtur, ftylo, non carere fchematibusj 



( 57 ) 

which the fcripture has left of that event, and we 
mall find that it gives no authority whatever for fo 
ftrange a fuppofuion. 

8. The original anceftors of mankind were no 
fooner feated in paradife, than they found themfelves 
in a (late of trial. And the trial on which they were 
put, at that time, was not the trial of their obedience 
to the moral law, but to a pofitive precept, <c Thou 
Jhalt not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and 
evil." 

9. Our firft parents, when in paradife, where the 
earth fpontaneoufly brought forth every thing to 
fupply their wants, and where they were the only 
inhabitants, were not tried by their obedience to the 
law of moral obligation; becaufe they could, in that 
Hate, be under no poffible temptation to falfehood, 
to adultery, to injuftice, or any other immorality. 
The violations of truth and juftice are ufually occa- 
fioned by the force of temptations to which Adam 
and Eve, placed in the garden of Eden, were inac- 
ceffible. God, therefore, inftead of making their 
enjoyment of his favour depend on their obedience 
to the ftatutes of the moral law, which they had no 
temptation to violate, made it depend on their obe- 

uncle minus mirum videiur, fi cjutsdam in fuperioribus ut jacent 3 
intelUgenda non fint, qua?nvis nuda ornamentis ?iarratio, primo 
intuitu videtur" Cleric in Genef. iii. 22. See'Warb. Div. 
Leg. b. ix. 



( 5* ) 
dience to a fingle injunction, not to eat of the tree of 
knowledge of good and evil; which did operate as a 
charm upon their fenfes; which was grateful to the 
eye, and pleafing to the fmell; and which, confe- 
quently, exercifed their felf-'denialj and formed a fa- 
tisfactory teft of their obedience. 

10. A ftate of temptation is necefifary to beings 
accountable for their actions. Accountablenefs fup- 
pofes a capability of merit or demerit, or, in a reli- 
gious fenfe, a power of obtaining the favour or of in- 
curring the difpleafure of God. But how can a 
capability of obtaining, or a qualifying fitnefs for re- 
ceiving the divine favour, exift in actions, which did 
not originate in •preference? A ftate of moral proba- 
tion, or a ftate in which we are capable of merit and 
demerit, of obedience and difobedience to the divine 
will, necefTarily fuppofes the encounter of oppofite 
motives in the bread of man; and the fitnefs or right 
application of moral agency confifts in making a 
right choice between them; in preferring the motives 
to obedience to thofe which incline us to difobe- 
dience ; and in regulating our conduct by the former, 
rather than by the latter. 

ii. Our firft parents, though they had no tempta- 
tion to violate thofe laws of moral obligation, in 
obedience to which righteoufnefs now confifts, were 
yet placed in a ftate of moral agency, and capable of 
merit or demerit, as far as they were capable of obe- 



( 59 ) 

dience or difobedience. Even, in paradife, they 
were, in fome meafure, operated upon by contend- 
ing motives; and they were required to make a 
right uie of the freedom of their will in choofing 
between them. They were liable, as the hiftoiy 
proves, to the external agency and the internal in- 
fluence of temptation; and their moral agency con- 
firmed in combating the one and repelling the other. 
They beheld the tree of good and evil waving its 
fair and beautiful fruit (probably more attractive in 
its appearance, than the fruit that grew on any of the 
other trees in the garden) before their eyes. The 
outward attractions of the fruit operated on their 
fenfes; and concurred with the prohibition to eat, to 
inflame defire. In quenching the defire, and in obey- 
ing the divine injunction, their morality and their 
happinefs confifi ed. The command was pofitive 
not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of 
good and evil; and obedience to it was enforced by 
this denunciation, " In the day that thou eatefl thereof 
thou Jhaltjurely die" 

12. Our firfl parents were thus placed in a date of 
temptation; and fubjected to the influence of oppofite 
motives.' The forbiden fruit, acting on their fenfes, 
inflamed their appetites, and inclined them to dif- 
obedience; while the love of him, who had provided 
for them fuch abundance of delights, and gave them 
full power to enjoy all the varied luxuries of paradife, 
ivtth this finale exception, combined with the fear of 

3 



( 6o ) 

incurring the penalty which he threatened, Teemed 
more forcibly to impel them to obedience. 

T :. But our firit parents, a good deal like their 
defcentLntSj fcem to have been vanquifhed by the 
defire ofprefent gratification. Beguiled by the imme- 
diate pleafure, they difregarded the more diftant con- 
fequences. They perhaps pra&iied upon themfelves 
delufions of a fclf-impofture, fimiiar to that which 
we are fo often accuftomed to practife upon our- 
felves, in thofe cafes in which our appetites are in- 
flamed by the nearnefs of fome prefent, but criminal 
indulgence. They, perhaps, imagined, that if they 
tranfgrcITeJ, the tranfgreflion might be concealed ; 
or that the ccv. r quences might not be fo bad as were 
threatened. Confcious of the goodnefs of God, the^ 
might fondly hope that one (ingle offence would not 
fo far provoke hi* wrath, as to caule him to depiive 
them for ever of all the happinefs which his bounty 
had provide^ to drive them from his prefmce and 
doom them to mifcry and definition. Thus it is pro- 
bable, that they liftcned to the vain imaginations of 
their own hearts ; they fuffered the flame of feniual 
defire to make its inroads into the foul, till it became 
too violent to be extinguifhed. They ate of the 
fruit which they were commanded not to eat; they 
violated the injunction of God ; and brought death 
into the world. 

14. Hence we fee that our firft parents were no 



( 6i ) 

fooner created, than they were tempted like as we 
are; that they had, as we have, reafon and confcience 
and freedom of will to vanquifh :emptation; but that 
by not liftening to the fuggeftions of reafon and not 
minding or not believing the denunciations of God, 
and by abufing their natural freedom of moral agency 
which his goodnefs had imparted, they fuffered a 
temptation to overpower them, which they might have 
overpowered, 

15. That the moral powers, or the powers of re- 
filling temptation, and of conforming to the law of 
a rational nature or the wiJl of God, were flronger 
in Adam, than they have been in many of his de- 
fendants, by no means appears from any fuggeftions 
in the account of the fall, or in any other parts of 
fcripture. The contrary is rather proved by the 
hiftory ; for Eve feems, as far as can be gathered from 
the relation of Mo/es, to have yielded to the fir ft tempta- 
tion, and to have been vanqui/ked by the fir ft impulfe of 
unlicenjed defire. Many of the frail and fair daughters 
of Eve, who from her derive forrow and travail in 
the conception of children, feem to have (liccefsfully 
refilled temptations flronger than thofe by which 
their female progenitor was overcome. How then 
can it be truly faid, that there was, in our firil parents, 
an original righteoufhefs which has been entirely loft 
in their defcendants ? Let us not be deceived, by 
fine-founding words, or by the honeyed cant of 
falhionable authorities; let us examine the fcriptural 



( 62 ) 

account of the creation and the fall, and we fhall find, 
that that which i- called original righteoufnefs never 
exifted; and, confequently, could never be loft. For 
what does the word righteoufnefs mean in the language 
of fcripture, or what can it mean in the language of 
common fenfe, but a habit cf doing right , of obeying 
the divine will, in preferring good to evil, and obe- 
dience to difobedience ? Our firft parents could not 
have been created in, or born with this habit of 
righteoufnefs j for if they had, they would have con- 
tinued righteous. 

1 6. When a habit is formed by repeated ads, it 
becomes a permanent principle of action; that guides 
us with eafe, and that we refill with difficulty j and 
much more powerful would be an habit of righteouf- 
nefs, incorporated in the frame, and ingenerated in 
the foul by the author of our being; but that fuch a 
habit was not ingenerated in Adam or in Eve, is clear 
from this, that they appear to have embraced the 
firft temptation to unrighteoufnefs ; and to have tranf- 
grefTed, almoft as foon as they had an opportunity 
of tranfgreffng. Real righteoufnefs (not the coun- 
terfeited righteoufnefs of imputation *) confifts in a 



* Whitby calls the imputation of Chrift's perfect and ac- 
tive obedience to us, a very falfe and pernicious doctrine: and 
he proves, that it is contrary both to fcripture and to reafon. 
See his difcourfe on the imputation of Chrift's perfect righte- 
oufnefs in his Teftament. " In the holy fcriptures," fays 



( 63 ) 

vigorous habit of refilling remptations to fin, and of 
folio wing the true motives to holinefs; but our firft 
parents feem either not to have poffefTed, or not to 
have exerted, the power to acquire fuch a habit; for 
they were no fooner tempted than they fell. 

17. It appears then, from the records ofinfpiration, 
that what is called original righteoufnefs, is a mere 
fiction, fit only for fome canting fanatic * to incul- 
cate, or fome fuperflitious old woman to embrace ; 
for, even for a minute, fuppofing that man did ever 
poffefs an ingenerate habit of righteoufnefs, fuch an 
habit could not have been implanted in the human 
nature without annihilating all ideas of merit or 
demerit, without totally deftroying the freedom of 
choofing between good and evil, and abolifhing the 
flate of moral probation in which man is placed; 



Whitby, " there is no mention made of the imputation of any 
man's fin, or righteoufnefs to another, lut only of the imputa- 
tion of his oivn good deeds for righteoufnefs, or of his oivn evil 
deeds for punijlwient ." See Whitby's N. T. vol. ii. p. 235. 

* In proportion as a man is averfe to the cant of religion, he 
is attached to the reality j and in the fame degree that he 
pradtifes the cant, he is eftranged from the reality. This re- 
mark may, perhaps, delerve the attention of the evangelical 
preachers whofe continual cant about faith, grace, imputed 
righteoufnefs, and imputed fin, is a convincing proof that they 
love darknefs better than light, and myftery better than com- 
mon fcnfe, hecaufe their deeds are evil. 



( «4 ) 

and which fuppofes, in mod cafes at lead, fomething 
like an equality in the motives, which incline the will 
to good or to evil. But an irrefiftible bias to good, 
fuch as what is called original righteoufnefb, fuppofes 
in our firft parents, would have counteracted any 
bias to evil, and have annihilated the influence of 
the motives to difobedience; but that fuch a bias to 
good was not impreffed on the firft anceftors of the 
human race appears from this, that they wanted 
(Irength and refolution to defeat one wayward in- 
clination to unrighteoufnefs. 

1 S. Man was originally created, as the fcriptureS 
allure us, in the image of God ; and his image flill 
remains in all who are born into the world ; and no- 
thing but atls of difobedience to the divine will can efface 
it in us, any more than in our firft 'parents *• Till acts 



* Mr. Wilberforce feems to fuppofe, that the moral part of 
human nature is a mafs of putrefaction. But Mr. Wilberforce 
will not, I hope, think his authority depreciated, if I prefume 
to pay lefs deference to his opinions, than to thofe of Sir Mat- 
thew Hale, the righteous and the wife, and thofe of Eifliop 
Butler, the penetrating and profound. Sir Matthew Hale, in 
his primitive origination of mankind, fays. " I come now tocon- 
fidcr of thofe rational in(tine~ls, as I call them, the connate 
principles engraven in the human foul ; which, though they 
are truths acquirable, and drducible by rational confequence 
and argumentation, yet they feem to be inscribed in the very 
crafn and texture of the foul, antecedent to any acquifition by 
induftry, or the exercife of the difcurfive faculty in man ; and, 



( 65 ) 

of fins are committed, there is the lovely imprefs of 
a divine character uoon the human nature; fuch as 



therefore, they may be well called anticipations, prenotions or 
fentiments chara6terifed and engraven in the foul, bom with 
it, and growing up with it, till they receive a check by ill cuf- 
toms or educations, or an improvement and advancement by 
the due exercife of the faculties. I mall (hew, firft, what they 
are : fecondly, what moves me to think that fuch are con- 
natural. 

" 1. Touching the former, I think thofe implanted and con- 
natural anticipations are thefe; namely, that there is a God ; 
that he is ofgreateft power, wifdom, goodnefs, and perfection; 
that he is pleafed with good, and difpleafed with evil; that 
he is placable ; that he is to be feared, honoured, loved, wor- 
fhipped, and obeyed ; that he will reward the good and punifh 
the evil ; a fecret fentiment of the immortality of the foul, or 
that it furvives the body to be capable of rewards and punifh- 
ments, according to its deportment in this life ; certain common 
notions of moral good and evil, of decorum and turpe; that faith 
and promifes are to be kept ; that a man muft do as he would 
be done by; that the obfeene parts and actions, though other- 
wife natural, are not to be expofed to public view, obvelatio 
pudendorum; that a man mull be grateful for benefit received. 
Thefe, and fome fuch common notions or intimate propen- 
lions, feem to be connaturally engraven in the foul antecedently 
to any difcurfive ratiocination; and though they are not fo dif- 
tinct and explicit, yet they are fecret biafles, inclining the hu- 
man nature primarily to what is ufeful and convenient for it, 
in proportion to the flate of an intellectual nature : That, as 
we fee in brutes, befides the exercife of their faculties of fenfi- 
tive perception and imagination, there are lodged in them cer- 
tain fenfible inftincts antecedent to their imaginative faculty, 
whereby they are pre-determined to the good and convenience 
of the fenfible life; fo there are lodged in the very crafis and 

F 



C 66 ) 

we behold in the innocence of fmiling infants; on 
whofe ccnfciences is no fin, and in whofe hearcs is 



confiitution of the foul, certain rational inftincts whereby it is 
pre-difpofe<i, inclined, and biafled to the good and convenience 
proportionable to a rational and intellectual life j a certain con- 
genite ftock of rational fentiments and inclinations, which may 
go along with him, and fairly incline him to fuch a trade and 
Way as is Suitable to the good of his nature; fo that he is not 
left barely to the undetermination, incertainty, and unfteadi- 
nefs of the operation of his faculties, without a certain fecret 
and gentle predifpofition of them to what is right, decent, and 
convenient for their manage and guidance by thefe common 
anticipations, inclinations, and connatural characters engraven 
in the foul. 

" 2. And that which inclines me to believethis,is not only the 
congruity of the fuppofition to the convenience of the human 
nature, and the inftance of the fenfible inftincts in the animal 
nature proportionate to their convenience, and the great import- 
ance of them to the convenience thereof} but alfo that, which is 
obfervable in the attentive confederation of the manners of 
mankind in general, which feems to have thofe common fen- 
timents in them, and to accord in them in a very great mea- 
fure: and though evil cuftoms and education much prevails 
among men, yet it doth not wholly obliterate thefe fentiments, 
at leaft from the generality of mankind. It muft be agreed 
that thefe rational inftincts, as I call them, are not always fo 
vigorous and uniform in their actings as the animal inftin&s of 
brutes are in their kind, which partly proceeds from that li- 
berty of will tli3tis in the human nature, which many times 
fufpends or interrupts tlnir energy and operation, partly from 
that mixture of the fentient appetite with the actings of the 
reafonable foul, which oftentimes tranfport it. Even the more 
Simple and uncompoundtd any nature is, the more uniform, 
are its motions and actings ; the natural inftinct* and propor- 
1 



C 67 ) 

no guile. Innocence, or a freedom from any moral 
taint) which is the true image of the divine nature 



tions even of things inanimate (as of heavy bodies to defcend) 
are more uniform than the very inftincts of brutes, who have 
a more complicated form or nature: but as this accidental in- 
terruption of rational inftin&s doth not difprove their exif- 
tences, fo man hath a greater advantage by the exeicife of his 
reafon and intellective faculties, to remove thofe interruptions, 
and improve thofe connatural fentiments or rational inftincts 
to his lingular ufe and benefit, which abundantly recornpen- 
feth thofe interruptions.'" 

" Again," fays Sir Matthew Hale, " I appeal to the moft 
knowing men in the world that have but had the leifure to 
think ferioufly and converfe with themfelves, and that have 
kept their minds free from the fumes of intemperance and ex- 
cefs, paffton and perturbation, whether next under divine reve- 
lation their belt and cleareft fentiments of morality at leaft 
have not been gathered from the due animadverfion and in- 
fpe&ion of their own minds, and the improving of that flock 
of morals that they there find, and the tranfcribing of that 
original which they found firfl written there. It is true, that 
it is with the connatural principles infcribed in our minds as 
it is with our faculties, they lie more torpid, and inactive, and 
inevident, unlefs they are awakened and exercifed like a fpark 
involved in allies; and being either fuppreffed or neglected, 
they feem little better than dead; but being diligently attend- 
ed, infpected, and exercifed, they expand and evolve them- 
felves into more diftinclion and evidence of themfelves. And, 
therefore, it was not without fome kind of probability that 
fome of the ancients thought that fcience was little elfe than 
memory or reminifcence, a difcovery of what was in the foul 
before. But whatever may be faid of other matters, certainly 
thefirjl draughts andjlri£lures of natural religion and morality art 

F 2 



( 63 ) 

imprefied upon the human, is born with us; and 
if we die before we have learned to difccrn s;ood 



■naturally in the mind." See Hale's Primitive Origination of 
Mankind, fol. London, 1677, p. 6l, 61, 63. 

The following are fome of Biihop Butler's notions of human 
nature: " There is not at all any lV.eh thing as ill will in one 
man towards another, emulation and refentment being away, 
whereas there is plainly benevolence or good-will : There is 
no fuch thing as love of injultice, oppreflion, treachery, ingra- 
titude, but only eager defires after inch and fuch external goods j 
which, according to a very ancient obfervation, the mod aban- 
doned would choofe to obtain by innocent means, if they were 
as eafy and as effectual to their end : That even emulation 
and refentment, by any one who will confider what thefe pat- 
lions are in nature, will be found nothing to the purpofe of 
this objection : And that the principles and paflions in the 
mind of man, which are diftindt both from felf-love and bene- 
volence, primarily and mojl di redly lead to right behaviour, and 
o?ily fecondarily and wore remotely to ivhat is cz'il" Biihop Butler's 
Sermons, p. 19, 20, 

" There can be no doubt/' continues this great philofopher 
and divine, " that feveral propenfions or inftincts, feveral prin- 
ciples in the heart of man, carry him to fociety, and to contri- 
bute to the happinefs of it, in a fenfe and a manner in which 
110 inward principle leads him to evil. Thefe principles, froben- 
Jlons or inJlinSls, which lead him to do good, are approved of by a 
certain faculty ivithin, quite diftincl from thefe propen/lo?:s them- 
/elves, p. 28. 

" Every bins, inftinct, propenfion within, is a real part of 
our nature, but not the whole: Add to thefe the fuperior fa- 
culty whole office it is to adjuft, manage, and pri fide over them, 
and yon complete the idea of human nature. And as, in civil 
government, the conAitution is broken in upon and violated 



( h ) 

from evil, and have become perfonal tranfgreflbrs 
by perfonal acls of difobedience, by not obeying the 



by power and ftrength prevailing over authority; fo the con- 
stitution of man is broken in upon, and violated by the lower 
faculties or principles within prevailing over that, which is, 
in its nature, fupreme over them all. Thus when it is faid by 
ancient writers, that tortures and death are not fo contrary to 
human nature as injufticej by this, to be fure, is not meant, 
that the averfion to the former in mankind is lefs ftrong and 
prevalent than their averfion to the latter ; but that the for- 
mer is only contrary to our nature contidered in a partial view, 
and which takes in only the loweft part of it, that which we 
have in common with the brutes ; whereas the latter is contrary, 
to our nature, conjidercd in a higher fenfe ; as afyftem and conflitu- 
tion, contrary to the ivhole economy of man. And, from all thefe 
things put together, nothing can be more evident than, that, 
exclufive of revelation, mankind cannot be contidered as a 
creature left by his Maker to act at random, and live at large 
up to the extent of his natural power, as paffion, humour, wil- 
fulnefs, happen to carry him 3 which is the condition brute 
creatures are in : But that from his make, covjlitution, or nature, 
he is in the Jiricleft and moji proper fenfe a lazv to hi?nfclf. Hg 
hath the rule of right ^within. What is iv anting is only that he 
honeflly attend to it. , 

The inquiries which have been made by men of leifure after 
fome general rule, the conformity to or difagreement from 
which mould denominate our actions good or evil, are, in many 
'refpects, of great fervice: Yet let any plain, honeji man, before 
he engages in any courfe of action, a/k himfelf, is this I am going 
about rioht, or is it ivrong? Is it good, or is it evil ? I do not 
in the leaf doubt but this quejlion ivould be anfwered agreeably to 
truth and 'virtue, by almojt any fair ma?i, in ahuoji any circw/i- 
Jiance. Neither do there appear any cafes which look like 

F 3 



( 7° ) 

fuggeftions of confcience, and by offending againft 
what Sir Matthew Hale and Bilhop Butler call the 



exceptions to this, but thofe of fuperftition and partiality to 
ourfelves. Superftiiion may, perhaps, be fomewhat of an ex- 
ception; but partiality to ourfelves is not, this being itfelf dif- 
honefty. For man to judge that to be the equitable, the mode- 
rate, the right part for him to n6t, which he would fee to be 
hard, unjuft, oppreffive in another ; this is plain vice, and can 
proceed only from great unfairnefs of mind. 

rt But allowing that mankind hath the rule of right within 
bimfelf, yet it may be aiked, what obligations are we under to 
attend to, and follow it? I anfwer; it has been proved, that 
man by his nature is a law to himfelf, without the particular 
diftincl confideralion of the pofitive fandions of that law, the 
rewards and puniiliments which, from the light of reafon, wc 
have ground to believe are annexed to it. The queftioo then 
carries its own anfwer along with it. Your obligation to obey 
this law, is its being the law of your nature. That your con- 
fcience approves of, and attefts to, fucli a courfe of action, is 
itfelf alone an obligation. Confcience does not only offer itfelf 
to (hew us the way we fhould walk in, but it likewife carries 
its own authority with it, that it is our natural guide, the guide 
afiigned us by the author of our nature. It, therefore, belongs 
to our condition of being, it is our duty, to walk in that path 
and follow this guide, without looking about to fee whether 
we may not poffibly forfake them with impunity." p. 45, to 4Q, 

Thefe fentiments, both of Sir Matthew Hale and of Bifhop 
Butler, are very adverfe to thofe of Mr. W. and not very agreea- 
ble to thedodtrine of the ninth article, which fays, that u man 
is, of Jus oivn nature, inclined to eviiy But, according to the rc- 
prefentation of Bifhop Butler, man is, of his own nature, in- 
clined to good, and the practice of morality is mofl conformable 
to the principles and frame of hiz co:i/Jitution. 



( 7* ) 

law of our nature, we die not fubjecT: to wrath and 
damnation j but with the fame image of God en- 



The prevailing opinions about original (in refl principally 
on the authority of St. Auftin ; whofe writings were, at the 
time of the reformation, more read and better underftood than 
thofe of the early Grrek fathers, who give no countenance to 
the doctrine. Speaking on this futrject;, Jeremy Taylor fays, 
c< There is nothing which, from fo flight grounds, hath got fo 
great, and till of late, fo unqueftioned footing in the perfus- 
ions of men. Origen laid enough to be miftaken in the quef- 
tion. 'H dgct t& Aodu, xoivrj ■zuccvrcuv teprv xai ra. xa.ra. tvj 
yvvxiKos, sy. etrri xctfr r t ; 8 Xsysrcci. Adarris curfe is common 

i 

to all ; and there is not a woman on earth to whom may not 
be faid thofe things which were fpoken to this woman (Eve). 
Him St. A.mbrofe did miftake, and followed the error about 
explicating the nature of original fin, and let it fomething for- 
ward. But St.AuJiin gave it complement and authority by his 
fierce disputing againft the "Pelagians, whom he would over- 
throw by all means. And if fuch a weak principle as his faying, 
could make an error fpread over fo many churches, for fo many 
ages, we may eafily imagine, that fo many greater caufes, as I 
before reckoned, might infect, whole nations, and confequently 
mankind, without crucifying our patriarch or firft parent, and 
declaiming againft him (poor man) as the author of all our evil. 
Truth is, we intend by laying load upon him to ex- 
cuse OURSELVES J AND WHICH IS WORSE,. TO ENTERTAIN 
OUR SINS INFALLIBLY} AND NEVER TO PART WITH THEM, 
UPON PRETENCE THAT THEY ARE NATURAL AND IRRESIS- 
TIBLE." Taylor's Practice of Repentance, p. 423, 424. 

Whitby, as famed for his honefty as his erudition, and who, 
Jike Jeremy Taylor, Clarke, and other great theologians, 
thought it no deviation from truth and no violation of his 
oath to deviate from the doctrine of the articles, when they 

' F 4 



( 72 ) 

graven upon our fouh, with which we came into 
the world. 



deviated from the doctrine of fcripture, affailed the unfcrip- 
tural hypothecs of hereditary depravity, and other fictions of 
Calvihiftic fuperftition, with weapon.-, which the Cnlvinifts of 
his day could not encounter, and which the Calvinifts of our 
times will find it impomble to repel. 

In the beginning of the preface to his Five Points, Whitby 
fays, " They who have known my education may remember, 
that I was bred up feven years in the univerfity under men of 
the Cahinijiical perfuafion ; and fo could hear no other doc- 
trine, or receive no other inftrnciions from the men of thofe 
times, and therefore had once firmly entertained all their doc- 
trines. Now, that which firft moved me to fearch into the 
foundation of thele doctrines (viz. the imputation of Adams Jin 
to all his pojlerity), was the ft range coniequences of it: this 
made me fearch the more exactly into that matter, and by 
reading Jofua Ptacazus, with the anlwer to him, and others on 
that fubjeel, I soon found cause to judge that there 

WAS NO TRUTH IN IT." 

I am furprif-d, and not more furprifed than concerned., that 
Mifs Hannah More, in her very fenfible, lively, and highly 
polilhed work on education, Ihould have allotted a chapter to 
the defence of the innate corruption of human nature-, a doc- 
trine which is, I truft, fully proved in thefe pages to be con- 
trary both to fcripture and to reafonj and which, as Jeremy 
Taylor, the flower of Englifh theologians, has declared, is difa- 
•voived by all cm li qui ty prior to the tunes of St.slu/lin; in whom it 
found a champion, who had zeal without difcretion, and know- 
ledge, without judgment. That St. Auflin, mould have enter- 
tained fuch unworthy notions of human nature, I the lefs 
wonder, when I confklcr the atrocious flinders which lie fabri- 
cated againft the more amiable Jcx. " De carbonibus.' fays the 



"( « ) 

1 8. Man did not: originally poffefs any thing like 
an ingenerate habit of right eoujnefs-, but hepoflefled at 
the beginning, as he has done in all ages and genera- 
tions fnce, certain tendencies io good, implanted in 
his nature; and which he is required to invigorate 
by cultivation. He brings into the world certain 



ungallant Father, whofe huge folios fupport the hereditary- 
depravity of the world, " ignis fcintillse profiliunt, de ferro 
rubigo nutritur, morbos afpides fibilant, et mutier fundit con- 
cuplicentice peftitentiam; in r'ifum aliquando dijjlitvitur; nunc blan- 
ditias exhibet ; et, quod eft <venennfius fuper cuncia, pfatlere drfec- 
tatur aut cantare ; cujus cantu totcrabilius eji audire bafilifcum 
ftbiluntun" — Aug. in lib. de fing. cleric. In another place he 
fays, " Mutter nee docere pot eji, ?iec teji'is ejjc, nee fidem dicere. 
nee judicare." Many, many are the ladies of the prefent day, 
who have afforded a moft facisfaclory refutation of thefe ca- 
lumnies ; and have {hewn that they are able both to inftruct and 
to delight ; to teach the pureft morality to others 3 and to let 
the brighter! examples of it themfelves. Nor can I believe, 
that if the modell Father couid be again brought on earth to 
hear fome of our EngliGi, and Scotch, and Iriih ladies war- 
bling their fweeteft notes, he would any more compare the 
harmonies of the fair creation to the venom of the afp, or the 
hilling of the bafilitk. The Fathers, in general, feem to have 
had no very favourable opinion of womankind. Jerom gives 
this auflere, unfocial, and unnatural advice : u Kofpitiolum 
tuum aut raro aut nunquam mulierum pedes terant; omnes 
puellas aut virgines Chrifti aut, aequaliter, ignora aut sequa- 
liter dilige. Vide, ne fub eoJem tedo, manferls" Hier. in 
Epift. ad Nepot. Chryfoitom on the beheading of John the 
Baptift, calls woman a confummatc mi/chief; and the JJiarpe/i 
upon in the Devils armoury HI 



( 74 ) 

powers, as thofe of reafon and the moral fenfe, which 
are necefiary to him as a moral agent, accountable 
for his a<5tion c ; he pofTeflcs the power of difcerning 
good from evil, and of choofing between thcmj and 
on the right ufe ofthefe powers, much of his prefent 
and all his future happinefs depends. If he prudendy 
cxercife and carefully improve thefe falutary faculties 
of his nature, he doeth good; if he mifapply them, 
he doeth evil. If he do good, he continueth in fa- 
vour with God; if he do evil, he falls, as Adam fell, 
under his difpleafure. 

19. Our date of trial, at prefent, feems more dif- 
ficult than that of Adam in paradife. He had only 
one temptation to refill and one precept to obey ; 
but a thoufand temptations are every where fpread 
around us; which ever way we turn, it requires vi- 
gilance to efcape a fnare ; and our duties, inftead of 
being limited to the obfervance of a fingle precept, 
embrace a multiplicity of important obligations. 

20. Our fphere of moral agency is wider and more 
extended than that of Adam. We expofe, as it 
were, a broader furface to the influence of tempta- 
tion; the obedience required at our hands fuppofes 
the fubjedlion of the will, and the conformity of the 
conduct to a variety of injunctions ; and in the cir- 
cumftances in which we are placed, it requires vigor- 
ous refolution not to do amifs. It requires a fenfe 
of duty, not momentary, but permanent; it demands 



( IS ) 

unwearied labour, and unceafing vigilance. It may 
eafily be conceived how we, who are placed in cir- 
cumftances more difficult than thofe in which our 
firit parents were placed, fhould be frequently over- 
come by temptation, and yield to fin, without hav- 
ing recourfe to the imputation of Adam's unrigteouf- 
nefs to his pofterity, or to the pernicious notion that 
our actual tranfgreffions are the fruits of an hereditary 
depravity. 

Si. That no principle of moral corruption was 
infufed into the nature of man after the fall, and that 
no irrefiftible bias to moral evil was imprelTed on the 
human will, we are taught by the fentence of con- 
densation which was paffcd on our firft parents i in 
which we do not perceive, that the Lord took from 
man the power of difcerning between good and 
evil, or making a free choice between them; and 
certainly this part of the fentence, which would have 
constituted the moil grievous part of the punifhment, 
would not have been paired over in filence if it had 
been inflicted. 

22. The whole of the punifhment which Adam 
differed, and in which his pofterity are involved, was 
an expulfion from paradifes an expofure to bodily 
toil and mifery, and a diffolution into the duft from 
which he was taken, Adam being deprived of para- 
dife could not leave it as an inheritance to his pof- 
terity, any more than, in common life, a parent can 



( 7« ) 

tranfmit to his children the patrimony which he has 
wafted by his extravagance. The fentence palled 
on Adam, though certainly a punifhment en him who 
had offended, appears to have been rather a difpenfa- 
tion of mercy to, than an infliction of revenge upon, 
his innocent pofterity. It placed them in a (late of 
difcipline, more fevere indeed, but, at the fame time, 
more favourable to their improvement. The fhort- 
nefs of this prefent life carries our hopes to another; 
the frequent fpectacle of mortality in all around us 
checks the extravagance of pride, and moderates 
the intemperance of mirth; while the many afflic- 
tions and cares with which life is ftrewed, tend to 
foften the heart, and to teach us to fhew kindnefs to 
others by the want of it ourielves. Moral improve- 
ment is greatly accelerated by fuffering; it fobers 
the thoughts; it exalts, it purifies, and, in fome mea- 
fure, ianctifies the affections. 

23. The eafe which Adam enjoyed was not fo 
genial to the growth of habits of obedience to the 
divine will, as the more arduous (late of probation, 
to which we are born; for Eve appears to have yield- 
ed to a temptation which many of her fair and amia- 
ble defendants would now combat with fuccefs ; and 
Adam complied with the wiihes of his partner with 
more facility than fome of his children would comply 
with the guilty wifhes of the woman they mod lov e. 

. 24. As far, therefore, as I am competent to judge, 



( 77 ) 

from a ferious investigation of the queftion, it ap- 
pears to me, that the moral (late of man, as he comes 
from the womb, is, at lead, not worfe than it was 
originally, for moral improvement is proportioned 
to the Strength with which we can combat, and 
the fuccefs with which we can conquer temptation. 
But the power of refilling temptation was certainly 
not more inherently pofTeffed, or more vigorously 
exerted, by our firfr. parents, than it has been by 
their lateft defendants. The ftate of moral difci- 
pline in which man is at prefent placed, and par- 
ticularly in thofe countries which are acquainted with 
the revelation of Jefus, feems, in a high degree, fa- 
vourable to his progrefs in moral obedience and true 
holinefs. Have we not, therefore, good reafon to 
conclude, that man is born at prefent, as he was cre- 
ated at the beginning, a being accountable for his 
actions, endued with a faculty to difcern good from 
evil, and capable of regulating his conduct by its 
decifions; that the fall did not imprefs on the will a 
bias to depravity ; but placed man in a ftate of dis- 
cipline, in which fuffering is nicely accommodated 
to the perfectioning of his nature; in which he has 
more temptations to combat, and more difficulties to 
furmount; but where temptations vanquished, and 
difficulties overcome, will be found eminently to 
contribute to his improvement in righteoufnefs ? 

25. If it be aSTerted, as it may with truth be af- 
ferted, that, by the tranfgreflion of Adam, his pof- 



( 78 ) 

terity became liable to fin -, it muft, at the fame time, 
be remembered that Adam himfelf was made liable to 
fin ; or he would not have finned; and, as far as he was 
the firfifmner, he may be truly faid to have brought 
fin into the world. We are all born as Adam was 
created, liable to fin ; but there is a very great differ- 
ence between the being born liable tofin 3 and the being 
born finners, depraved to the very core, obnoxious to the 
divine wrath, and doomed to eternal perdition with- 
out ANY PERSONAL ACT OF UNRIGHTEOUSNESS, 

26. The great difference between the natural date 
and privileges of Adam and of his ddcendants, is 
this j that Adam was made capable ofhappinefs and 
immortality on certain conditions, without even a tem- 
porary extinclion, or fufpenfion of life \ but, at prefent, 
man is born to trouble j and the grave is placed be- 
fore him as a neceflary paiTage to an endiefs life. 
Man became fubject to death by Adam's fall ; and, 
therefore, many die almoft as foon as they are born: 
and more before they are capable of difcerning good 
from evils and, confequently, before their hearts can 
be imbued with guilt ; for it is nothing but the taint 
of actual perfonal guilt, that caufes us to forfeit the love, 
or to incur the wrath of Cod, and to lofe the imprefs of 
his image on ourfuls. 



RELIGION WITHOUT CANT. 



THE DOCTRINE OF FAITH, 

Speculative and practical, pbilofophical, theological 

and moral. 

IN THREE PARTS. 
PART I. 

I. Faith is an affent of the mind to the truth of any 
proportion. Of this affent, there are various degrees : 
from that conviction which is produced by actual 
certainty, to that which reds only on fome faint and 
diftant probability. Of the truth of thofe things 
which are within the cognizance of the fenfes, the con- 
viction is firm and undoubting. There are, likewife, 
many truths which are capable of actual demonftra- 
tion, or of which the reality may be made fo palpable 
to our perceptions, that we can no more refufe our 
affent to them, than we can to the truth of our own 
cxiftence. Of this kind, are thofe truths which are 
called mathematical i and of which, when the terms 



( 8o ) 

are underftood, and the feveral propofitions from 
which they refult are clearly and perfpicuoufly ex- 
plained, and, as it were, brought home to the under- 
ftanding, the belief amounts to certainty. 

Q. No one who rightly underftands the meaning 
of the terms, can doubt that two and two make four. 
Our afTent, therefore, to the truth of this proportion, 
that two and two make four, is firm and immovea- 
ble. It is a certainty which excludes doubt. There 
are other propofitions of which the evidence is not 
fo clear and conclusive ; and to which the afTent that 
we yield is not of fo fixed and unchangeable a na-' 
ture. It does not exclude doubt, or rife up to cer- 
tainty. Many of the truths, which are the objects 
of our aiTent, and the grounds of our practice in com- 
mon life, are of this defcription : they are not ca- 
pable of actual demonftration ; their reality cannot 
be rendered fo palpable to the fenfes as to produce 
that conviction of the mind which may be denomi- 
nated actual certainty. They are the refult of many 
probabilities, which amount to what may be called 
moral certainty ; a certainty not like that which arifes 
from mathematical proof, but which is fuited to a 
rational nature ; and furncient both to convince the 
mind and to influence the conduct. 

3. In the autumn or in the fpring we bury the feed 
in the earth, in order that it may produce a harveft 
in the fummerj but that the one will be followed by 



( 8i ) 

the other, is not an actual or a mathematical, but 
only a moral certainty. At the time in which we 
fow the feed, we cannot demonflrate the reality of 
the future harveft; we cannot bring it before our 
eyes, or make it palpable to our fenfes. All the 
grain that is fown may perifh in the earth; it may 
be deftroyed by infects, or nipped by blights -, waft- 
ed by too much rain, or withered by too much fun- 
fhine. But, from the obfervations and deductions 
of many years pad, the connexion between feed time 
and harveft is rendered, as it were, infeparable in our 
minds j and we commit the grain to the bofom of 
the earth, under almofi: as ftrong a conviction that it 
will take root downwards and bear fruit upwards, as 
if, at the time of fowing, we faw it waving o er the 
fields in the fulnefs of its beauty and the maturity of 
its flrength, 

4. When we adopt any plan of conduct that has 
a relation to the future, when we engage in any 
exertions that have a reference to fomc diftant ad- 
vantage, when we embark in any fpeculation that 
requires fome facrifices of a prefent, and a certain,, 
for a great probable, but uncertain, intereft, that 
convi&ion of the mind which induces us to adopt 
this conduct, or to engage in thefe meafures, cannot 
amount to an actual, though it may to a rational and 
moral certainty of iuccels. It may be the refuk of 
accumulated probabilities, to which it would be un- 
reafonable not toadem; and on which k would be 

G 



( 82 ) 

unwife not to aft. In the mod: intereiting fcenes, 
and the mod important undertakings of our lives, 
we are often contented to act on evidence, which is 
very far removed from certainty ; and, from the ex- 
pectation of events of which die iffue cannot be 
known or the reality afcertained. 

5. Belief may, generally, be confidered as of two 
kinds; that which is an actual, and that which is a 
moral certainty* that which depends en realons, which 
amount to a demonstrative proof; and chat which 
reits on thofe which are only the Cakula ions of pro- 
bability. When many probabilities are accumulated 
in favour of any truth, when they are fo nu i.erous 
as greatly to exceed the probabilities in favour of a 
contrary fuppofition, they amount to what may be 
termed a moral certainty; and which, though it do 
not exclude every particle of doubt, affords a juft 
claim to aflent and a right principle of action. 

6. The truth of revelation is not a demonftrative 
but a moral certainty; a certainty arifjng from pro- 
babilities; to which no probabilities of a contrary 
tendency and an equal weight can be oppofed. Any 
fober and reafonable man, who mould fairly and 
impartially examine the different degrees of credit 
that are due to thefe two que ft ions, whether the Chris- 
tian revelation be true or falfc> will find fo many argu- 
ments infupport of the former, and fo very fuperior, 
both in number and in weight, to any that can be 



brought to countenance the latter, that he will 3 even 
after the clofeft companion, and the minuted inquiry^ 
afTent to the truth of the Chrillian religion, and con- 
fide in the reality of the Chriliian miracles* 

7. Faith, therefore, in the divine authority of the 
Chriftian religion, is an alien: to a truth that is highly 
probable -, fo probable as to be morally certain. The 
truth of revelation is not a mathematical problem, 
of which we can demonftrate the certainty, or make 
its truth palpable to the fenfes. It is an historical 
fact; of which the truth or the faliehood muft be de- 
termined by the weight of evidence. 

8. Revelation is a record of facts, which took 
place in Judea about eighteen centuries ago; and on 
the truth and reality of thefe "facts depends the truth 
of the doctrines which they were intended to eftablifh. 
If the miracles which are related in the gofpels be 
fictions, then the whole fyftem is a fiction. If Jefus 
did not rife from the dead, then the doctrine of the 
refurrection of the dead, which is grounded on that 
event, is nothing better than a vifion of the night. 
Then our faith is vain, and our hope vain. Now 
the refurrection of Jeius from the dead is not an 
object of fenfes nor can the fact be made vifible to 
the eye, nor palpable to the touch. We cannot, 
like Thomas, fatisfy our doubts by feeing the print 
of the nails in his hands, nor the mark of the fpear 
in his fide; but, neverthelefs, though the actual truth 

G % 



( U ) 

of the refurrection is not a mathematical certainty, 
nor a felf-evident proportion; though our faith can- 
not be, like that of the eye-witnefles of the fact, a 
fenfation which forces conviction on the mind, and 
excludes every doubt from the heart, yet the fact 
itfelf was fo well atteded at the time, and the tefti- 
mony was fo ftrong and fo confident, and delivered 
and maintained under fuch difcouraging circurn- 
ftances, and has been tranfmitted to us with fo little 
alteration, that the reality of the miracle itfelf is a 
moral certainty j to which it is unreafonable not to 
affent, and on which it is highly imprudent and peril- 
ous not to act. For the probabilities in favour of 
the truth of the refurrection of Jefus from the dead, 
and, confequently, in favour of a future life, are fo 
much flronger than any probabilities which the genius 
of man can adduce to fupport the contrary, that not 
to believe a fact, of which the evidence is fo clear 
and convincing, and not diligently to feek to obtain 
that intereft of which it demonftrates the reality, 
would be called a folly, approaching to madnefs, in 
the ordinary concerns of life. 

9. When, indeed, we poffefs fuch an accumula- 
tion of probabilities, amounting to a fatisfactory 
proof of the truth of the Chriftian religion, it feems 
as unwife and as unfafe not to regulate our prefent 
life with a view to a future, not to lay up a treafure 
of good works here, in order to promote our happi- 
nefs hereafter, as it would be not to fow the earth in 



( «J ) ' 

autumn, that we may reap in fummer. The proba- 
bilities in favour of this proportion, that our prefent 
life is relative to afuture y are as convincing, as they 
are in fupport of this more familiar truth — that feed 
time is preparatory to harveft. — In our worldly con- 
cerns, we often act as if fome future, but diftant in- 
tereft, at which we aim, were prefent to us; we do 
not regard the uncertainties that may interpofe 
between the day before us and the year to come, 
when the chances of attaining the object of our wifhes 
are greater than thofe of their being fruftrated. In 
endeavouring to attain that happinefs which faith, 
propofes as the end of our labours, we are not to be 
difcouraged by any intermediate obflacles; or to fuf- 
fer doubts, arifing from the circumflances in which 
we are placed, to undermine our conviction, and to 
fub vert our hopes. We mould remember, that our 
faith in revelation is an aflent, not to what is a mathe- 
matical, but a moral certainty; that it is a truft in the 
truth of facts, which are fupport ed by highly credible 
teftimony ; that it relates to an intereft which is not 
feen, but hoped for; and of which the reality is evinc- 
ed by probabilities, fufficient to work conviction in 
the minds of beings endued with a power of inquiry 
and a freedom of choice; with reafon to inveftigate 
what is true, and with liberty to conform to what is 
reafonable.. 

10. When men violate their duty, they cannot be 
imprefTed with a juft fenfe of its importance or have 

G3 



( 86 ) 

right notions of the good afibciated with it ; for all 
men are governed by their intereft; and where there 
is a juft fenfe of the importance of religious obedi- 
ence, there holinefs will be, in fome meafure, iden- 
tified with felf-intereft ; for it will then be perceived, 
that a greater intereft is connected with the obfer- 
vance of our duty than with the breach of it. A 
ftrong fenfe of duty will always be blended with a 
ftrong perfuafion of the intereft depending on its 
practice. If men act, as all reafonable men will do, 
from comparifons of good, and calculations of in- 
tereft, then the practice of religious duty will always 
be found greatly to exceed the cornmiflion of fin in 
intereft and advantage. 

it. The truth of revelation is not fo certain as not 
to admit of doubt ; but the probabilities in favour of 
its reality are fo numerous, and fo greatly exceed the 
probabilities in favour of the contrary, that every 
man would be efteemed guilty of an imprudence 
approaching to infanity, who, on any common occa- 
fion, would not acknowledge a truth fo plain, or act 
on evidence fo convincing. When a merchant fends 
out a fliip on a diftant voyage, he compares the pro- 
bable advantages that will accrue from it, with thofe 
which he might derive from fending the fame fhip 
on a voyage nearer home; but if the chances offuc- 
cefs greatly outweigh, in his mind, the chances of 
failure; if the probabilities of an eventual lofs are 
confiderably lefs than thofe of an eventual gain, he 



( 87 ) 

will fubmit, like a wife and prudent man, to be go- 
verned by the fair calculations of intereft, and conclu- 
fions of probability. 

12. Where the hope of advantage is flronger 
than the fear of lofs, the latter, though it may, in 
fome degree, affect the fenfations, will not alter the 
conduct. The merchant who fends out his fhips 
on dangerous ventures to remote and unfrequented 
fhores, where they may be dafhed on the rocks, or 
fwallowed up in the waves, acts all the while on rea- 
fonable probabilities ; which caufe him to defpife 
uncertainties, and to truft to the future. In the com- 
moner!: concerns in the every-day affairs of life, men 
are continually trufting to contingencies, and 1 fpe- 
culating on uncertainty ; and yet the fame conduct, 
which is thought reafonable in common life, is often 
thought unreafonable in religious conduct. Reli- 
gion points, it is true, to a diftant intereft ; and as it 
is not within the cognizance of any of our fenfes, it 
is uncertain. But if its reality be highly probable, it 
is unwife not to regulate the conduct by the evidence, 

13. Religion is as a voyage which v/e are defired 
to make, in order to obtain an intereft which exceeds 
calculation, and to which no prefent intereft in the 
world can bear any comparifon. It is, indeed, a 
voyage to eternity; a voyage in which much felf- 
denial is to be practifed, and our unruly appetites to 
be moderated •, and moft men prefer a voyage nearer 

G 4 



C 83 ) 

home, where fenfual pleafures may be more lavifhty 
enjoyed-, and in which fewer facrifices are required. 
But this is the great and awful confideration : Is not 
the good which religion promifes to the righteous, greater 
than that which any pleafures in this life can afford to 
thefinner? None can deny the magnitude of reli- 
gious intereft; yet, as it is uncertain, people flatter them- 
fehes that it may be an illufion. But whether the in- 
tereft may not poffibly be an illufion, is not what we 
ought to confider; but whether it be not probable, 
and in what degree probable, and if it be probable 
only in a moderate degree, ftill the intereft is fo vaft 
as to make that moderate degree of probability de- 
ferve the attention of every ferious man; and much 
more will it be found to deferve attention when reafon 
fhows us, that the intereft which revelation has un- 
folded is, in a high degree, probable, fo probable as 
if not to preclude doubt, to fatisfy the inquifitive, 
and aftonifh the profound. 

14. In matters of religious faith, a certain degree 
of doubt cannot be avoided*. As the human mind 



* Hooker fays, *5 we have lefs certainty concerning things 
believed, than concerning fenfible or naturally perceived. OF 
thefe who doth doubt at any time ? Ofthent, at fome time ,tuhn 
doubteth not ? I will not here allege the fundry confeflions of 
the perfected that have lived upon earth concerning their great 
imperfections in this iv ay ; which if I did, I fhould dwell upon 
a ?natter fufficicntly knoixm by every faithful man that doth know 
himfelf:' Hooker's Works, ed. Ox. I7y3, vol. iii. p. 523. 



( 89 ) 

is conftituted, and in the circumftances in which we 
are placed, fome degree of doubt is necefiary as a 



After this quotation from Hooker, I cannot help remarking 
that this great divine appears to have believed in what he 
fomewhere calls the " foggy damp of original corruption," 
which he feems to have fuppofed fpread over all our faculties} 
but of which little was ihed upon his own. It was not a damp 
that chilled the growth of virtue in his heart, or that clouded 
the luftre of his intellectual light. Had I not long ago, when 
only a beardlefs boy, adopted the principle of " nullius addictus," 
&c. I might have fallen down in difmay, or have bent in paf- 
five humiliation before the coloiTal authority of Hooker. I 
might have declined the combat with his mighty genius as 
Paris retired at the approach of Menelaus. "Avp r avsyjjo^crsv, 
ur£fO£ Te piv iiXs rfa%eix(. But, even if the quefiion of ori- 
ginal corruption were to be decided by authority, I might cer- 
tainly, without any derogation from the merit of Hooker, op- 
pofe to his decifions the great theological reputation of Jeremy 
Taylor, who was by no means inferior to Hooker in vigour of 
intellect, in depth of erudition, or in richnefs of fancy. Jeremy 
Taylor, the firft Englilh divine of the eftablifhed Church with 
whofe writings I am acquainted, that openly oppofed the doclrine 
of the ninth article, fays, that " it is Jo far from being true, that 
man after his fall did not forfeit his natural poivcr of election, that 
it seems rather to be increased. For as a man's know- 
ledge grows, fo his will becomes better attended and miniftered 
unto. But after his fall his knowledge was more than before ; 
he knew what nakednefs was, and had experience of the dif- 
ference of things) he perceived the evil of difobedience and the 
divine anger; he knew fear and flight, new apprehenfions, 
and the trouble of a guilty confeience: by all which and m2ny 
other things he grew better able, and instructed with 
arguments, to obey God, and to refuse sin for the 
time to come. And it is every man's C2fe; a repenting man 



( 90 ) 

/pedes of trial. If religion did not admit doubt, the 
mind would not be aftive in believing: faidi would not 
be, in any degree, an operation of the underftandin°-; 
nor would it be different in different individuals. 

15. In order to exercife the reafon, religious evi- 
dence was wifely made an aggregate of many proba- 
bilities, each of which deferves fome consideration j 
and to each of which different individuals may give 
different degrees of credit. Some will prefer the 
hiftorical, fome the prophetic, fome the internal, 
fome the external evidence ; but the conviction of all 
will generally be found to reft more on the aggregate 
of evidence, than on the individual force of any par- 



is wifer, and hath oftentimes more perfect hatred of fin than 
the innocent ; and is made more wary by his fall." Taylor's 
Practice of Repentance, ed. 1655, p. 410. 

" Men," fays Taylor, '* fometimes by evil habits and by choof- 
ing vile things for a long time together, make it morally im- 
poflible to choofe and to love that good in particular which is 
contrary to their evil cnjloms. Cujlom is the devil that brings 
in new natures upon us ; for nature is innocent in this particular. 
Nulli nos vitio natura conciliat: nos ilia integros ac liberos 
genuit (Senec. ep. g4). Nature does not engage us upon a vice. 
She made us intirej Jlie made us free ; but ive male ourfclves 
frifoners andflavcs by vicious habits , or as St. Cyril (Catech. Q). 
cxprefTes it iX^ovrzs avxpz^roi vjv fh ircooapscrsu}^ ajxacrayo- 
psv. We came into the world without (in, but now we fin by 
choice, and by election bring a kind of nccellity upon us. But 
this is not fo in all men; and fcarcely in any man in all in- 
stances." Taylor's Practice of Repentance, p. 421, 422. 



( 9* ) 

ricular part ; more on the accumulated probabilities* 
than on any Jingle probability. 

1 6. The degree of affent which different indivi- 
duals give to the truth will vary according to the 
degree of underftanding, the power of inquiry, the 
exercife of refearch, &c. ; and the higheft degree of 
affent will be that in which theiperfuafion of the truth 
approaches the neareft to that ftate of mind which 
is produced, not by the evidence of probability, but 
by that of certainty ; not fo much by the deductions 
of reafon, as the demonftration of fenfe. But though 
religious belief may approach very near to the con- 
viction of certainty, yet it will never be found en- 
tirely to reach it. The moft fincere believers are 
fubjecl to moments of diilruft j the moft righteous to 
emotions of defpondency. True faith will, indeed, 
often make the future, as it were prejent; but there 
will be often other intervals, when 'clouds and dark- 
nefs will red upon it; when the apprehenfions of un- 
certainty will (leal into the mind and fadden the 
heart. Some degree of doubt will, therefore, in 
fpite of all our endeavours to the contrary, be occa- 
fionally mingled with the reality of our faith. Like 
fhadows thrown acrofs our path, they will caft a 
gloom around us, and perplex and bewilder our way. 

17. But though religious diilruft will fometimes 
arife in the mind, it is always to be reftfied. He who 
cherifhes doubts is weak and unfettled in the faith; 



( 92 ) 

as he who cavils at the infirmities of humanity is 
ufually wanting in love to mankind. To fofter 
doubts inftead of checking their growth, oppofing 
their admiflion, and counteracting their malignity, is 
to give them an undue influence, and to incline to 
fcepticifm. A good and fober-minded man will, 
indeed, maturely weigh every reafonable objeftion to 
the truth ; but he will always feel a ftronger difpofi- 
tion to embrace the good than the evil; to fpread 
his heart open to the arguments for belief, rather than 
to give admiflion to the perfuafions of infidelity. 

1 8. As the truth of revelation is not a matter of 
certainty, but only of probability, his faith is genuine 
whofe conviction of the truth is much ftronger than 
his diftruft ; and the more the former fentiment pre- 
vails, or the more conviction precludes doubt, the 
more will the practice of the life correfpond with 
the conclulions of the reafon, and the perfuafions of 
the heart. The lefs doubt of The Truth that there 
is in the mind, the greater will be the certainty of that 
reward which it promifes, and the ftronger the en- 
deavour to obtain it. The more doubts gather round 
the mind and prefs upon the heart, to the greater 
diftance will the intereft of religion recede into fu- 
turity, and the more problematical it will feem; but 
the more that doubts vanifh from the imagination 
and the lefs they trouble the affections, the nearer 
will the intereft approach -, till it comes, as it were, 
almoft within die edge of the fight, and the grafp of 



( 93 ) 

die touch. Thus faith, in a meafure, makes the fu- 
ture prefent, and operates on the conduct, in propor- 
tion to its ftrength. 

19, As faith increafes, goodnefsmuft increafe; but 
as faith grows feeble, righteoufnefs will decay. For 
the more lively faith is, the flronger will be the af- 
furance of that eternal intereft to which faith directs 
our attention; with which it drives to animate our 
hopes and inflame our affections. And the more 
mindful people are of the interefts of eternity, the 
lefs they muft live for thole of time; for the interefts 
of eternity, when beheld by the eye of faith, will 
fwallow up thofe of time. The two interefts will 
bear no comparifon ; and as far as man is governed 
in his conduct by reafonable calculations of intereft, 
fo far the faithful will make the gofpel a rule of life; 
becaufe it will be the teft of their good and the ftand- 
ard of their happinefs. 

ao. Almoft every man has a certain ftandard of 
intereft in his own mind to which he conforms, and 
by which he, for the mod part, regulates his actions ; 
and happy, thrice happy, is that man, the ftandard 
ofwhofe intereft and the bafis of whofe happinefs is 
obedience to the revealed will of God*. All men are 



* A man may, perhaps, have a ftrong convl&ion of the truth 
of revealed religion, and, in his way through life, may have his 



( 94 ) 

governed by a fenfe of intereft, and, perhaps, none 
more than he who entertains a f roper fenfe of the in- 
ter eft which is connected with the duties of religion; for, 
that inter eft is the great eft in degree, the fur eft in kind, 
and the longeft in duration. It exceeds every other in- 
tereft in quantity, in quality, in intention of degree, 
and extenfion of time. Other interefts are often at 
variance with a fenfe of duty; and cannot be ob- 
tained without its violation. But religious intereft 
and a fenfe of duty are never at variance. They are 
indeed one and indivifible; and he who has a juft 
impreilive fenfe of his religious intereft, will have 
accurate, juft, and upright notions of every other 
intereft. He will know and feel that he can have 
no intereft diftinct from the obligations of morality. 

21. The diftance at which our religious intereft 
is placed does not diminim its magnitude, though it 
may lefTen its credibility. Diftance dees not really 
leflen the fize of an object, though it makes it appear 
lefs to the eye. It does not deftroy its reality, or alter 
its proportions, it only alters its relations to us in 
point of fpace, and our relations to it in refpecl to 
the capacity of apprehending it. The intereft of 



heart conflantly and warmly afTe&ed with a fenfe of his eternal 
intereft j and yet, oiving to fome pcrverfc and unfound notions of 
j unification, or Jomc mi flake about the conditions of Jalvation, this 
conviction may not have a f roper influence on his conduA, 



( 95 ) 

eternity, too vaft for our conceptions in our prefent, 
finite, imperfect ftate, was wifely made remote; that 
its proportions might, in fome meafure, be fuitcd to 
our capacity, and accommodated to our fituarion. 
Beholding it only at a diftance, it is but as a fpark- 
lingftar; to which if we could approach nearer, its 
magnitude would appal our fenfes. To behold, in 
its natural fize and its exact proportions, the vaft in- 
tereft which religion promifes to the righteous, our 
faculties mull be changed; our fenfes made more 
vigorous; this corruptible muftput on incorruption ; 
and this mortal immortality* 

12, Were the truth of revealed religion a matter 
of demonftrative certainty, and the reward connected 
with obedience to its laws brought within the fphere 
of our vifion, its brightnefs would be too ftrong for 
our fight. It would, like wife, be deftru&ive of a 
Hate of moral probation. Men's motives would all 
incline one way; and a bias would be laid on the 
will too ftrong to be counteracted. But the wifdom 
of the Almighthy (thank the Lord, oh my foul! 
thank the Lord for all his goodnefs!) appears, in his 
having fo arranged the evidences of revelation, as to 
make faith a matter of choice rather than of neceffity; 
and in having caft juft fo much obfeurity about the 
reality of the in tereft, as is fitted to leave it in that 
ftate of doubtful light which does not dazzle the eye, 
nor put an end to that probationary ftate in which 



( 96 ) 

divine wifdom has placed us here \ and which would 
be probationary no longer, if the affections were 
more piaffed or the will more enflaved ; if it were 
not left to our unconftrained choice, either to em- 
brace or to reject the truth of Chriftianity. 



RELIGION WITHOUT CANT. 



—^rZTt — 



THE DOCTRINE OF FAITH. 



PART If. 

I. That doctrine of faith which the Fanatics are in 
general fo loud to proclaim, and fo eager to defend, 
is a lhamelefs calumny on the credibility of revela- 
tion, and the rational powers of man. They repre- 
fent faith as the immediate gift of God; a miraculous 
infufion poured into the foul without the confent of 
the will. They afcribe it to a power, fuperfeding 
the neceility of inftruction, and the ufe of inquiry. 

2. That faith is the gift of God, no fober Chrhtian 
will deny; but then it is no more the miraculous gift 
of God, than any other part of knowledge. If God 
give us the faculty to acquire any thing, he never in- 
terferes * to fuperfede its exercife, or to give us the 
benefit without that exertion on which he made it 



* Except on very extraordinary occafions, and for very fpe< 
cial purpofes indeed. 

H 



( 93 ) 

dependant. God has given us faculties to calculate 
the revolutions of the planets, and to meafure the 
diameter of the earth; but the pofTeflion offuch know- 
ledge is always pofterior to and dependant on the 
exertion of the power. The Almighty does not in- 
fufe into the mind of man, either agronomical, ma- 
thematical, or any other kind of knowledge; but he 
gives the capacity to obtain it; and the pofTeflion is 
the confequence of intellectual application. 

3. It is God who gives us the bread which we eat; 
but then, becaule this is true, who ever imagined, 
that bread was not the product of human indufthy ? 
Though it be a felf-evident truth, that God gives us 
not the bread which perifhes, without much previous 
labour and toil, yet, in fpite of this glaring analogy, 
the Fanatics aflert, that He gives us the better bread 
which endureth unto everlafting life, without any 
perfonal endeavours to obtain it; that he infufes it 
into our fouls, whether we labour for it with dili- 
gence, or crofs our arms in idlenefs. 

4. Thefe notions fuppofe, that God has communi- 
cated a revelation to mankind, of which no man can 
difcover the truth ; for if man, by the right exercife 
of his reafon, can difcover the truth of revelation, why 
Ihould God make faith independent of its exercife*? 



* If ChriftVinity be fupported by fufficicnt evidence, nothing 
more can be wanting, on the part of man, to attain a reafonabb 



( 99 ) 

Thus the Fanatics entirely invalidate the ufe of reafon 
in matters of religious opinion. 

5. If faith be, according to the fanciful notions of 
the Fanatics, a miraculous infufion, our belief is not 
a matter of choice; and, then, with what juftice can 
we be called to account for not believing? If reli- 
gious belief be independent on the confent of the will 
and the exercife of the reafon, then certainly, with 
refpect to the morality of faith, the believer can pre- 
fer no ftronger claim to the divine favour, than the 
infidel. The believer being acted upon by a power 
under whofe influence the will is paflive and the rea- 
fon dumb, cannot help believing j and the infidel not 
enjoying the fame arbitrary intervention of a miracle, 
cannot help not believing. 

conviction of its truth, than a fober examination of the evi- 
dence which fupports it. The evidence by which Chriftianity 
gained its firft footing in the world was that of miracles. To 
thefe miracles Jefus of Nazareth appealed as the ftrongeft 
proofs of his commiffion to declare the will of God to man- 
kind. If thefe miracles were matters of fact, and if the ac- 
counts of them, which have been tranlmitled to us, be genuine 
and authentic, which I fee no reafon to difbelieve, then, why 
fhould faith in revelation be a miraculous infufion ? If God 
wrought miracles at firft to confirm the teftimony, why ihould 
he Hill be obliged to work other miracles on the mind of every 
individual to make it credited ? This would be to fuperfede 
the neceffity, or to deny the authenticity of the firft miracles ; 
for, if they be authentic, they are credible; and if credible, the/ 
will produce belief, if their truth be rationally investigated. 

H 2 



( ico ) 

6. But the Fanatics found their notions of faith, as 
they do their other tenets, on that rotten and crum- 
bling pillar of their theology, the innate depravity 
of man. Did, indeed, man ifiue from the womb, as 
they pretend, a mafs of moral putrefaction, with his 
heart ulcerated with guilt, and his mind darkened 
with prejudice, he would, certainly, want capacity to 
difcover, and honefty to confefs the truth. He would 
not be able to comprehend the plained propofition 
in morals or religion. A man born blind might as 
eafily form juft and accurate ideas of the nature and 
properties of light, as a man born radically corrupt, 
and irrefiflibly propelled, by the bias of his nature, to 
the com million of iniquity, could form of the nature 
and tendencies of moral obligation. No man could 
have a tafte cf what is fweet if God had fo organifed his 
palate that he could tafte nothing but what was four; 
and, in the fame manner, no man could acquire a 
i dim for virtue, if the Creator had made him phy- 
•fically ravenous of vice. 

7. How contrary is this doctrine of the Fanatics 
to the doctrine of Chnft, which tells us to /earth the 

faiptures? to investigate the matter of belief; and 
which, in order to ftimulate our capacity to do good, 
tells us, that he who deeth the will of God, fhal! know 
of the truth whether it be of God. God feems to have 
made a belief in the Chriftian revelation dependant 
on the right application of the reafon and the con- 
fidence. If we will examine the evidence without 



( IOI > 

any beam of prejudice obftructing the fight of the 
mind, or any finfal luft reigning in the heart, the 
light is too clear not to be feen ; and the doctrine 
too pure not to be acknowledged as divine. 

8. Many of the errors which are ufually enter- 
tained on the docirine of faith * feem to originate in 
the miftake, or the perverfion of the term, which 



* Faith lays the foundation of our j unification. Juftifica- 
tion in fcripture means, for the moft part, an admiflion into 
covenant with God. As the Chriitian covenant flipulates cer- 
tain privileges to be conferred, and certain benefits to be grant- 
ed on the part of God, it requires certain conditions to be per- 
formed on the part of man ; and we mult fincerely believe the 
former, before we can earneilly fet about the performance of 
the latter. As the conditions which the new covenant impofes 
on man require great felf-denial, and many things difagreeable 
to flefh and blood, faith is nccejjary to Jiimulate our exertions, to 
elevate our hopes, and to purify our hearts. In this fcnfe, faith is 
the only caufe of our j unification \ or it is the only condition of ad" 
mijjion into covenant ivith God. But though faith juftifies, it 
does not, of itfelf, make us righteous 3 though.it initiates us 
into covenant with God, it does not make us partakers of its 
privileges or its benefits, without the performance of the con- 
ditions to which thofe privileges and benefits are appended. 
The performance of the conditions is an object of our choice; 
and faith, when it is fincere and lively, will,, necefTarily, ope- 
rate in favour of their performance. It will give, a bias to the 
will in favour of moral good ; and will not permit that (ppovTjij.x 
cracy.os, that fpirit of fenfuality which is planted in us, in order 
to afcertain our moral obedience, to fubjugate the reafon, and to 
reduce us under the flavery of iin. 

h 3 



( 102 ) 

has various fignifications; the confufion or the ig- 
norance of which has caufed many dilTcnfions in the 
Chriftian world, and contributed only to perplex 
thofe who, without a critical knowledge of the lan- 
guage of fcripture, have attempted to explain the 
dodtrines of Chriftianity. Ignorant people fuppofe 
the word faith to have only one particular and fpe- 
ciric fignification, which they apply promifcuoufly 
to every paflage in which the word occurs. This 
is, in a more efpecial manner, the practice of the 
hardy champions of Fanaticifm, who transfer to the 
term faith, in whatever part of fcripture it may be 
mentioned, a conftruction fuitetl to their own illi- 
beral prejudices, and calculated to favour their grofs 
and wicked perverfion of the Chriftian religion. 
That we may not be impofed on by that fenfelefs 
jargon, which viiionaries and Fanatics, which the fu- 
perftitious and the artful utter about faith, let us 
examine fome of the principal fignifications in which 
the word is ufed by the facred writers. 

9. Sometimes the word faith is employed to fignify 
the whole Chriftian doctrine, which is an object of 
faith. Thus when St. Paul fays, " by whom we 
have received grace and apoftlefhip for obedience 
to the faith among all nations for his name." Rom. 
i. 5. " He which perfecuted us in times paft, now 
preacheth the faith which once he deftroyed." Gal. 
i. 23. " Before faith came, we were kept under the 
law." Gal. iii. 23. " After that faith is come, we 



C l0 3 ) 

^re no longer under a fchool mailer. " Gal. iii. 25. 
cc Nourished up in the words of faith" dec. 1 Tim. 
iv. 6. " A great company of the priefts were obedient 
to the faith." Acts, vi. 7. "(Felix) heard him con- 
cerning the faith in Chrifl." Acts, xxiv. 24. — In all 
thefe paflages, to which many more might be added, 
the word faith is employed to reprefent the whole 
Chriftian doctrine, which is propofed for our belief. 
In one comprehenfive term, it includes the tenets of 
Chriftianity that are necefTary to be believed, and the 
duties that are neceiTary to be pra&ifed. 

10. Sometimes faith is taken, generally, for any 
ftrong perfuaiion of the mind, whether originating in 
a divine revelation, or produced by the force of argu- 
ment; as in the paflages which follow : cc He ftag- 
gered not at the promife of God through unbelief, 
but was ftrong in faith" Rom. iv. 20. " Haft thou 

faith? have it to thyfelf before God." Rom. xiv. 22. 
<c Without faith it is impofTible to pleafe him; for 
he that cometh to God muft believe thaj: he is." 
Heb. xi. 6. — In thefe places faith denotes nothing 
more than zfincere prfuafion of a particular truth. 

11. In other places, faith is ufed to fignify Amply 
veracity or truth which deferves aiTent; and as op- 
pofed to faifehood which deferves none. <c Shall 
their unbelief make the faith (truth) of God without 
effect." Rom. iii. 3. " The fruit of the fpirit is 
love, joy, peace, long-furTering, gentlenefs, goodnefs, 

H 4 



( 104 ) 

faith, meeknefs, temperance." Gal. v. 22, 23. In 
tfiis laft pafiage, faith, which is mentioned among 
the other virtues, of which the fpirit, or the word of 
God, rightly underftood, and diligently practifed, is 
productive, evidently fignifies veracity, or an in- 
violable adherence to truth in our words, our pro- 
mifes, in our dealings and intercourfe with each 
other. Hence, by the bye, we learn, that a lying 
tongue is incompatible with the gifts of the fpirit; and 
that thofe who make fuch bold pretences to the pof- 
feflion of thofe gifts, lay claim to what they cannot 
pofiefs, whenever falfehood is practifed by their lips, 
or guile is cherifhed in their hearts. 

12. Faith is, occasionally, taken for thofe things 
which are revealed by God, but are invifible to our 
perceptions. In thisfenfe "faith is the fubftance of 
things hoped for, the evidence of things not feen." 
Heb. xL 1. 

13. Sometimes faith is put for a fimple and lifelefs 
ajfent to things which are not feen ; as to thefe pro- 
pofitions, — that there is a God, that he made the 
world, &c. &c. Such a faith is characterise of that 
of devils, and is often mentioned by St. James in the 
fecond chapter of his epiflle. ce What doth it profit 
though a man fay, he hath faith and have not works, 
can faith fave him?" James, ii. 14. In this pafTage 

faith is ufed for a barren and dead ajfent to the truth 
of the Chriftian religion; without the fruits of that 



( *° 5 ) 

real goodnefs of heart and life which cannot be coun- 
terfeited; and without which faith is not faving. 
The word is ufed in this ienfe in feveral other places 
in this chapter of St. James. cc Faith without works 
is dead, being alone. " C( Thou believed that there 
is one God, thou doeft well; the devils alfo believe 
and tremble ; but know, oh vain man, that faith 
without works is dead." The apoftle afterwards 
declares, that <c by works a man is juftified, and not 
by faith only." In thefe pafiages St. James ufes the 
word to denote a vain, a dead and fruitlefs, as oppofed 
to a living, a vigorous and prattical conviftion of the 
truth ; and it is highly neceflary that we fhould attend 
to this diftin&ion, and, if poffible, afcertain the pre- 
cife fignification of the word in thefe days, when Jo 
many ftrange doctrines are broached about the nature of 
faith \ and when the ignorant and the credulous are 
tolled about by the machinations of religious impof- 
tors on a fea of errors. The apoftle James affec- 
tionately and earneftly conjured the Chrillians of his 
time to remember that fomething more than a bare 
outward profefllon of the faith was effential to falva- 
tion ; and that faith without works was as dead as a 
body deprived of the principle of life. 

14. Sometimes faith is ufed to fignify truft in the 
divine promifes; and in the recompenfe referved for 
the righteous ; and, in this fenfe, the word is repeat- 
edly employed in the eleventh chapter of the epiflle 
to the Hebrews, which contains an animated recom- 



( 8*6 ) 

mendation tA this f pedes of faith, illuftrated by exam- 
ples, and remarkable for the warmth of its piety, 
and the ftrength of its eloquence. 

15. Few are the people among the fcattered my- 
riads of mankind who have not fornc glimmering 
and indefinite notions of God, as the reward of 
thofe thacdiligcntly feek him (fee Keb. xi. 6). A 
belief in a flate of future rewards and punifhments 
feems to conllitute one of thofe great objects of faith 
about which all men are agreed ; a truth which the 
wife and the good, in all ages and nations, have con- 
curred to inculcate; and which, indeed, is conge- 
nial with the univerfal expectations of the human 
race. The knowledge of this truth may have been, 
at firft, communicated by revelation ; but a certain 

foreboding of the event feems naturally to originate from 
that flate of things in which we are placed; and where 
the often apparently confufed and fortuituous difpen- 
fations of good and evil, of pain and pleafure, of fuf- 
fering and enjoyment, lead the mind of man to look 
for a future life ; in which thefe irregularities will be 
corrected, and thefe diforders vanifhi when the finner 
and the righteous will be recompenfed according to 
their works. 

16. St. Paul infinuates in the fir (I chapter to the 
Romans, that the Heathen might, by the right ap- 
plication of their reafon, have framed juft notions of 
moral obligation and of the diftin&ions between vice 



( 107 ) 

$nd virtue; that they might have obtained fotne 
vvholefome information about the being of a firft 
caufe and a moral governor of the world, by the 
light of nature and the ftudy of his perfections, as 
they are manifefted in the works of his creation. 
And the apoftle informs us that the Heathen, by neg- 
lecting the right ufe of their natural faculties, had 
incurred the dtvine difpleafure, and were without 
excufe. But let us hear St. Paul himfelf: " That/' 
fays he, " which may be known of God is manifeft 
in them (the Heathen); for God hath mown it unto 
them; for the invijible things of him from the creation 
cf the world are clearly Jeen, being iinderjiood by the 
things that are made ; even his eternal power and God- 
head; fo that they are without excufe; becaufe that 
when they knew God, they glorified him not as God; 
neither were they thankful; but became vain in their 
imaginations; and their foolifh heart was darkened." 
Rom. i. 19 — 21. Hence we learn, on the authority 
of St. Paul, that the Heathen, by the right applica- 
tion of their reafon, might have difcovered the being 
of a God ; and, conjequently the knowledge of their dutyi 
for a right fenfe of the being of a God, of his power 
and goodnefs, cannot exift in the mind without a con- 
comitant fenfe of our dependance upon him for all 
that we poOfefs; and of our duty to give him thanks 
for all that we enjoy. 

17. But the Heathen world, though they were ca- 
pable of knowing God and of afcertaining his being 



C io3 ) 

and perfections, yet gave him not the glory that was 
due to him as the maker of the world. Neither 
offering him the incenfe of their praife, nor the tri- 
bute of their gratitude, they paid Icfs homage to the 
eternal Creator than to the perifhable creature. 
They changed the glory of the incorruptible God 
into an image made like to corruptible man, and to 
birds and four-footed beads and creeping things. 
Hence, their understanding became darkened, from 
not being properly applied; their diftinftions of right 
and wrong became confufed; and their affections, 
devoted only to the pleafures of this vain world, be- 
came corrupt. They were funk in idolatry and 
wickedntfsj flaves to the vanity of their minds and 
the lulls of their hearts. 

1 8. God never left himfelf without witnefs in the 
world, even among thofe nations to whom he never 
made known his will by a direct revelation. The 
great witnefs of the being of a God, and of his moral 
perfection?, exifts in the earth and the heavens ; in 
the reafon and the confcience of man. The reafon 
of man can hardly be called into action without dif- 
cerning palpable traces of an invifible Creator in the 
vifible creation. And the confcience of man, fo 
nicely fenfible of the diftinftions of right and wrong, 
fo jealous, as it were, of preferving in our hearts a 
juft fenfc of moral obligation, urging us to retain its 
laws in our minds, and to praftife them in our lives, 
fecretly imbuing our lenlations with pleafure when 






( 109 ) 

we do good, and with anguifh when we do evil* 
proves, that he who made us is a lover of moral excel- 
lence, by planting fo powerful an advocate for its authority 
and its praclice in cur hearts. 

19. Our nature has, originally, a bias to moral 
good, in preference to moral evil ; and when the 
choice is offered to the will, reafon when it is not 
darkened, and confcience when it is not depraved, 
will always prefer virtue to vice, with as little hefita- 
tion as we prefer fweet to bitter, pleafure to pain, 
and happinefs to mifery. But the misfortune is, 
that inllead of repreffing and moderating our ani- 
mal appetites and our fenfual defires, we fuffer them 
to grow rank and luxuriant ', to ftifle the confcience, and 
impair the reafcn. Then our foolifh hearts become 
darkened; then we become the fport of wayward 
lufts and unclean imaginations. Then we put good 
for evil, and evil for good; then we think righteouf- 
nefs our bane and fin our advantage. 

20. This was the miferable condition of the Hea- 
then world with refpect to the knowledge of God, 
and the practice of their duty; a condition to which 
they were reduced by the neglect or the abufe of 
thofe powers which God had given them to employ 
in the inveftigation of his perfections, and in the 
practice of righteoufnefs. Though the Heathen had 
fome perception of a ftate of rewards and punifh- 
ments, and, confcquently, of the importance of virtue 



( no ) 

and theintereft which they had in being virtuous; and 
though the knowledge of thefe weighty truths was never 
entirely obliterated among them, yet their belief in them 
was Jo faint that it had no influence on their lives. 

if. In order to fupply the defects of natural rea- 
fon, and to give undeniable proof of the moral go- 
vernment of the world i to awaken the dormant at- 
tention of mankind to a right fenfe of their greateft 
intereft, to difpel the clouds of fuperftition, and to 
abolifh thofe impoftures which men in all ages have 
been too prone too practife under the name of reli- 
gion, the Almighty has, at feveral times, interpofed 
in a more vifible and palpable manner, to declare 
himfelf the maker of all things, 3nd the only objecl of 
hitman adoration. 

22. Thefe revelations of the Deity were, at firft, 
partial or exclufive; made to particular perfons, 
or confined to particular nations ; but were all in- 
tended to pave the way for the miraculous appear- 
ance of Chrift Jefus, who was fent to manifeft his 
will to all mankind; and to fublijh a religion Juited to 
the r Joants and capacities of every people under heaven. 

23. In the beginning, God (hewed himfelf as the 
maker of the world, and the father of mankind, as 
the lover of thofe that do good, and an avenger of 
thofe that do evil. In the interval between the fall 
and the deluge, God feems, more than once to have 



( III ) 

manifefted himfelf to his creatures. After the de- 
luge, the Lord appeared unto Abraham, defiring 
him to forfake his kindred and his father's houfe, 
and to fettle in a land in which he was a ftranger; 
under an afTurance, that it mould, at fome future 
jperiod, belong to his pofteiity; and that, in the 
courfe of time, the whole world mould be blefTed in 
the perfon of one of his offspring. The faith of 
Abraham which, on this occafion, was counted to 
him for righteoufnefs, was an unjhaken truft in the 
fromifes of God, producing a willing obedience 

TO HIS COMMANDS, 

24. We next read of the great Maker of the 
world appearing under the partial name of the God 
of Ifrael; and we behold him interpofing with a 
mighty hand, and a ftretched-out arm to refcue the 
defendants of the favoured patriarch from the op* 
preflion of the Egyptians. God, afterwards, chofe 
Mofes as the fpecial inftrument of his providence 
and the meffenger of his will. By him, he entered 
into a covenant with the Ifraelites; at the fame time 
enacling fome laws, which were to have a perpetual, 
and publiihing others which were to have only a 
temporary exiftence. The former are limited to 
thofe moral obligations whofe truth and ufefulnefs 
are fupported by the univerfal confent and approba- 
tion of the world; and one tittle of whofe importance 
will never pafs away; which find a protection, flrong 
as adamant, in the principles of reafon and in the 



( M* ) 

common fympathies of humanity. The ceremonial 
Jaws of the Mofaic difpenfation were intended merely 
to preferve unbroken the barrier between Jew and 
Gentile, till the coming of him who was to break 
down the wall of partition between them ; and to 
teach that God is no refpecter of perfons ; but that he 
regardetb every man who worketh right ecufne/s in all the 
nations of the earth. 

25. In each of the partial revelations which pre- 
ceded the Chriftian, the Almighty exhibited many 
fignsofhis love for his creatures; and gave fome 
obfeure prefage of that glorious plan which he had 
formed for reconciling the world unto himfeif, in. the 
perfon of his fon, in whom he was well pleafed. In 
the Mofaic law the great fcheme of redemption was 
obfeurely infinuated, rather than diftinc'tly pourtray- 
ed in types and figures, in the facrifices of the altar, 
and the atonements of the prieft. The Redeemer 
was, indeed, feen through the rites of the Mofaic 
difpenfation, as through a veil or a glafs, darkly. 
They were like the cloud that covered the taberna- 
cle ; through which the eye could not penetrate; and 
which infpired fenfations of awe without exciting 
any lively perceptions of form and character. 

26. The prophets who lived after the Mofaic dif- 
penfation, particularly Ifaiah, exprefsly foretold a 
Redeemer to Ifrael; but the mode of redemption 
was left involved in obfeurity and uncertainty; till in 



( **3 ) 

the fulnefs of time (Thrift came msnifefted in the 
fiefh j the fpotlefs fun of righteoufnefs difperfmg the 
fhadows of the law; clearing up the milts of the vi- 
fion and the perplexities of the prophecy, and fted- 
ding the light of immortality over the darknefs and 
mifery of the world. 

27. Hence Jefus, The Chrift, The Median, fore- 
told by the prophets as our Redeedmer from the 
grave and the future judge of all mankind, is the 
principal object of Chriftian faith. This is the moft 
common acceptation and moft important fignification 
of the word faith in the fcriptures of the new cove- 
nant; and which we cannot too often remember, or 
too carefully retain. Faith, in this fenfe of the word, 
is necetTary to falvation*. St. Paul fays, " if thou 
(halt confefs with thy mouth the Lord jefus," (that 
is, if thou malt fincerely aflfent to, and fearlefsly avow 
this truth, that Jefus is the Mefiiah fent to declare 
the will of God to mankind,) <c and ft alt believe in 
thine heart that God hath raifed him from the dead, 
thou (halt be faved." Rom. x. 9. This belief muft 
not only be confefTed by the lips, but eftablifted in 
the heart, fo as to be productive of real goodnefs 
and righteoufnefs. Faith, thus underftood, is the 



* In thofe countries which enjoy the light of revelation, or 
among thofe whofe unbelief is more owing to the hardnefs of 
their hearts, than to a defect in the means, or the opportunities 
of conviction. 

I 



( "4 ) 

principle of a new life in the foul; it exalts the 
thoughts, purifies the arTeclions, and fanclifies the 
confeience. 

a8. " With the heart, " fays St. Paul, cc man be- 
lieveth unto righteoufnefs," Rom. x. 10.) that is, 
when the heart is really iu preiTed with that faith, 
which the gofpel requires, it will invariably mani- 
fefl: its invifible exigence, by the outward fruits of 
truth, iuflice, and mercy. This faith is infeparable 
from a right practical fenfe of moral obligation; and 
thofe who attempt to disjoin faith from a good con- 
ference, only make fhipwreck of their fouls. (See i 
Tim. i. 19.) The end of faith is to make us careful 
to maintain good works (Titus iii. 8.) ; to perfuade us 
that it is our greateft intereft to deny f£ ungodlinels 
and worldly lulls, and live foberly, righteoufiy, and 
godly in this prefent world." (Titus ii. 12.) To 
give any other explanation of faving faith is to quit 
the word of God, and turn afide from the wholefomc 
preaching of Chrift and his apoftles, to the M vain 
jangling;" to the " foolifh queftions and conten- 
tions" of ignorant vifionaries or interefted impoftors. 

■ 
29. We are, likewife, particularly to remember 

that true evangelical faith is always off dated with a 

beneficent difpcfition ; a difpofition prone to fympathife 

with the didrcfTes, and, as far as we have opportunity, 

to relieve the wants of our fellow- crcarures. For it 

is a conclufion, enforced by the precepts of our Sa- 



( i;5 ) 

viour, by the whole tenor of his life and the fpirit of 
his doctrine, that charity is the end of the commandment '; 
and that no faith availeth but that which wcrketh by 
love. (See Gal. v. 6.) And the term love does not 
fignify any grofs or licentious fenfations of affection, 
but the fire of vital charity warming our hearts, ani- 
mating our lives, and mewing its heavenly influence 
in every part of the conduct of man, towards his 
brother man. This is true Chriftian love* which is 
not (hewed in word, neither in tongue, but in deed 
and in truth* 



I 2 



RELIGION WITHOUT Cx\NT. 



THE DOCTRINE OF FAITH. 



PART I I J. 

i Faith, in its mod frequent acceptation in the 
Chriftian fcriptures means a conviction of this truth, 
that Jefus is The Chrift, the Son of God, and the 
Saviour of thofe who regulate their lives by his laws. 
It contains a firm perfuafion, that, if we obey him, we 
fhall obtain remiffion of fins, and eternal life -, and a 
vigorous refolution to render him the obedience 
which he has commanded. This is that faith which 
may truly be called faving -, and the fcriptures by no 
means warrant the fuppofition that faith, confidered 
in any other knk y will conduce to our falvation. 

2. That faith, therefore, which will form the 
ground-work of our juftiftcation before God, muft 
be afibciated with moral goodnefs; for one of the 
conftituent parts of faving faith is a perfuafion that 
Jefus will be the Saviour of thofe who regulate their 



( "7 ) 

lives by his laws ; and a right perfuafion of this laft 
truth, operating on the foul, will neceffarily produce 
obedience, in the general acts and habits of the indi- 
vidual. 

3. Thofe laws of Chrift, to which true faith tends 
to render us obedient, are not ceremonial but moral *. 
They are laws whofe obligations are unchangeable, 
which were written on tables of ftone and on the 
flefhly tables of the heart before he came into the 
world; and of which he did not invalidate, but 
increafe the importance, by eftabliihing their con- 
nection with the intereft of eternity. 

4. The laws of Chrift, on our obedience to which 
our eternal welfare is at flake, inculcate nothing but 
a pure, a vigorous, and an habitual morality of con- 
duct, without any of thofe fubtile refinements, thofe 
qualifications and referves, in which fophiftry de- 
lights; and with which the vain genius of human 
philofophy has too often perplexed the plaineft truths, 
and invalidated the mod forcible moral obligations. 



* "Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adul- 
teries, fornications, thefts, falfe witnefs, blafpheraies. Thefe 
are the things ivhich defile a man; but to eat with unwathen 
hands defileth not a man." Matt. x. ig, 20. Here we trace 
the right distinction between ceremonial and moral purity. All 
our Lord's fayings, by keeping which we are required to mani- 
feft our love towards him, have a moral tendency ; and his life 
was one continual funfhine of moral excellence. 

1 3 



( r,3 ) 

They are not made dark and ambiguous by equivo- 
cations; they are clear, ditiiacl:, and comprchenftve; 
not too obfcure for the apprehenfion of the mind, 
nor too difficult for general practice. They tend to 
make truth, juflice a and beni-volence the univerfal 
rule of human action and the unchangeable ftandard 
of human intereft. 

5. When truth and juftice and benevolence are 
made the maxims of conduct and the ;eft o( intertft, 
we can experience little perplexity in any of thole 
fituations which might embarrafs our choice, or be 
productive of crimes, if we adopted any other rule 
for the government of our actions, and eltimated hap- 
pinefs by mere felfilh calculations. Were the laws 
of Chi id unwerfally practifed, treachery and falfe- 
hood, violence and wrong, cruelty and injuflice 
would be banifhed from the world; in one word, 
morality would mine with unclouded luftre; for the 
will of God would be done on earth, as it is in hea- 
ven. Such are the happy tendencies, and fuch 
would be the beneficial operations of thefe precepts 
cf Chrift, to which it is one effential part of faving 
faith to adhere with inviolable affection and habitual 
fidelity. 

6. It is obedience to ChrifTs laws, which conftitutes 
the moral goodnefs of a Chriftian. For the laws of 
Chrift, of which he himfelf condenied the fpirit 
2nd the practice into this one glorious and unrivalled 



( "9 ) 

faying, cc whatfoever ye would that men fhould do 
unto you, do ye alio unto them," comprehend the 
whole circle of moral obligations. If, therefore, ge- 
nuine faith do include, as I think the whole tenor of 
fcripture proves, obedience to Chrift as a lawgiver: 
and if his laws be moral laws, then moral goodnefs 
muft be an infeparable adjunct of faving faith , and 
without which it is but an empty breath of air. 

7. The precepts of Ch rift differ, in a great mea- 
fure, from thofe of other lawgivers, in being rather 
pofitive than negative, in inculcating virtue rather 
than prohibiting vice; in enjoining more what is to 
be praclifcd than what is to be avoided; in fpeaking 
of duties more than of crimes ; in commanding bene- 
ficence more than juftice; and in deterring from evil 
by urging to good. Thus our Lord comprefles 
into this one emphatic faying " thou malt \owt thy 
neighbour as thyfelf;" the whole of the moral law; 
and he who fulfils only this one precept, cannot be 
wanting in any duty, or guilty of any crime. For 
love worketh no ill to his neighbour; and, therefore^ 
love is the fulfilling of the law. 

8. That beneficence which produces pofitive good 
muft exclude pofitive evil; for the fajne principle 
cannot operate as an incentive to good and to evil. 
True benevolence, therefore, muft prove deftruclive 
to falfehood and injuftice, and every fpecies of moral 
depravity. Hence we fee why our Lord compreiTes 

14 



( H6 ) 

the whole fubftance of morality into one brief pre- 
cept; fc thou (halt love thy neighbour as thvklf :" 
and why he faid to his diiciples, towards the conclu- 
fion of his miniftry, <c by this (hall all men know that 
ye are my difciplcs, if ye have love one to another/* 
The love which Chrift enjoined is the perfection of 
morality ; morality cleanfed from the lees of fdfifh- 
nefs. and refined into pure bene ficencej that morality 
which confitts not only in an abhorrence of faliehood 

* 

and injuftice, but which animates the vigorous ener- 
gies of active goodnefs j which not only indiipofes us 
to do wrong to others, but which difpofes us, as far 
as we have opportunity, to do good unto all men. 
This is that morality of which the practice is a ne- 
ceflary aflbciate ofjavmg faith. Thus faith, where- 
ever it takes fuch a ilrong pofilflion of the foul, as to 
be, in lome tneafure, the fubftance of things not leen, 
will be not a pajfoe quality , but an afire e principle j full 
of ftrergth and life; urging us not only not to work 
iniquity, but to bring forth the fruits of charity. 

9. Many perfons confine the feat and habitation of 
faith, the bounds of its exigence, and the fphere of 
its influence,, to the fenfationsj within whofe aafeous 
atmofphere they circumfcribe its power, and to 
whole invifible operations they reftricT: its evidence. 
But the (criptures do not authorize, and reafon dis- 
claims, any fuch vain, changeful, and pernicious teft of 
religious belief; for both reafon and fciipture prove, 
that the life is the only latisfactory evidence of its 
reality. 



t M" ) 

io. As far as faith is an invifible and inward prin- 
ciple, confined to the impenetrable caverns of the 
mind or to the unfeen chambers of the heart, we can- 
not know that fuch a principle even exifts without 
clifcerning fome teftimony,of its exigence in the out- 
ward conduct. A mere profeflion of belief does not 
conftitute belief, or make a man a Chriftian, any 
more than a bare profeflion of agronomical know- 
ledge makes a man an aftronomer; except fo far as 
the profeflion anfwers to the fact, and the fact to the 
profeflion. 

ii. The profeflion of a faith in the Chriftian reli- 
gion is a profeflion of thefe truths — that Jefus, the 
founder of the Chriftian religion, is the Meffiah fore- 
fhewn.to the Jews, and the Redeemer promifed to 
all mankind i and that he will confer eternal life on 
thofe who obey his laws. Genuine Ghriftiari faith, 
therefore, implies a conviction of a future and eternal 
life j with a pcrfuafion that its happinefs depends on 
the conformity of our conduct to the precepts of the 
gofpel. Now have we any reafon to believe that 
any profeflion of faith of this kind is true, where we 
fee thofe, who make it, giving no proof of irs reality 
in their lives; where we fee them acting, as if this 
life were the fum of their being, the termination of 
their hopes and fears, and as if their prefent con- 
duct had no relation to a ftate beyond the grave r* 

12. When we fee the profeflion of religious faith 



( 122 ) 

utterly at variance with the outward actions, when 
we behold it exerting no influence en the character or 
the conduct, not producing temperance, juftice, and 
righteoufne fs ; not rnaking the heart kind and the 
hand bountiful ; can we believe, that the inward f jrin- 
ciple exifts ? A n an is not to make his own fen- 
fations, however warn or rapturo* s they may be, a 
teft of his believing in Chriti; when (Thrill himfelf 
allowed no fu< h reft, but referred the evidence of 
faith to the conduct Let us hear his own words, 
and let them fink into our fouls: l< Every good tree 
bringem forth good fruit ; but a corrupt tree bringeth 
forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth 
evil fruit j neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good 
fruit : Every tree that hringeth not forth good fruit 
is hewn djwn, and cad into the fire." Matt. vii. 
I/. i y . 

13. If the blood be contaminated by any principle 
of difeafe or any mattet of contagion, the effects foon 
appear in the watte of the ilrength, the depreiTion of 
the mind, or the ulcerations of the fiefh. Where the 
body glows with 'the animating flame of vitality and 
health, there the limbs are vigorous, alert, active; 
the fiefh is firm, and the fpirits gay. If a principle 
of moral purity be fixed in the thoughts, if truth, and 
juftice, and humanity be enthroned in the affections^ 
their inward reality will be vifible in their outward 
operations. If moral corruption have feized the 
mind, and fprcad its baleful putrefcence over the con- 



( 123 ) 

fcience, the effects will correfpond with the caujfe* 
The conduct will be bafe, polluted with injuftice* 
with cruelty, or luft. The outward actions of a man 
are the bed mirror through which the (rate of his 
thoughts and his heart can be feen. <c Out of the 
hearr," faid our Lord, " proceed evil thoughts, mur- 
ders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, falfe witnefs, blas- 
phemies." Matt. xv. 19. The outward conduct 
diftinctly pourtrays the inward, workings of the foul. 
It ihews, if I may fo exprefs it, the true complexion 
of the heart, and marks the fluff of which the con- 
fcience is made. 

14. Whenever the principle of genuine Chriflian 
faith is alive, warm, and vigorous in the heart, it will 
diiplay its wholfefome energies in the moral character 
of the man. There will not be occafion for an audi- 
ble confeflion of the lips or any vifible infeription on 
the forehead, to fhow that faith animates the bread. 
'True faith is its own evidence. It wants no emblema- 
tic tokens nor factitious proofs. It manifefts its fpi- 
ritual ftrength, and, if I may fo term it, its bodily cx- 
iflence by figns beyond the reach ofhypocrify or art; 
and which bring conviction home to the mind of 
the fpectator. Its fruits are the fruits of holinefs. Its 
actions are ftamped with the facred irnprefs of truth 
and juftice and that vital warm beneficence which 
cannot be counterfeited j and whofe teftimony the 
whole world cannot gainfay nor refill. 



( **4 ) 

15. He who really believes in the truth of the 
Chriftian religion will not live for this fnort life i he 
will not purfue the perifhable things of this world 
with greedy impatience or intemperate defire. His 
faith will be " the fubftance of things hoped for ; 
the evidence of things not Teen." Neglecting the 
fordid concerns of time., his thoughts will be exalted 
to the higheft heavens, and his affections rapt in 
the bofom of eternity. 

16. True faith, as far as it is the faith of a rational 
being, muft be compounded of the affent of the mind 
and the perfuafion of the heart. It fuppofes the un- 
derstanding, from the inveftigation of the evidences 
of religion, to be convinced of its truth j and the af- 
fections to be interested in the practice of its duties. 

r 

Wherever the dictates of the reafon are thus in uni- 
fon with the impulfe of the fenfations, and the fenfa- 
tions accord with the decifions of the reafon, there 
religious faith flourifhes in its greatefl beauty and its 
utmoft flrength. 

17. It does fometimes, and, perhaps, more often 
than is fufpected, happen, that fpecuhtive belief is 
united, if I may fo fpeak, with practical infidelity ; 
or, in other words, that the mind fometimes a (Tents 
to the truth of the Chriftian religion, when no warm 
fenfe of its duties touches the heart; and the eon- 
fcience is callous to its weighty obligations. As a 
fpecuhtive belief in a God is by no means incompa- 



( **S ) 

tible with practical atheifm *, fo a rational convic- 
tion of the truth of revejation is fometimes aiTociated 



* The Atheifm of the French, to which fome have imputed 
all the exceffes of the revolution, was engendered by thr cor- 
ruptions of popery j and confequently, thofe who afcribe fo 
wide a fphere of agency to the fir ft, ought not to forget the 
effects that originated in the laft. When they declaim on the 
evil of the progeny, they mould not pais in filence over the 
malignity of the parent. In inveftigating the caufes of thofe 
great diforders which always accompany the revolutions of great 
ftates, when an ancient government is overthrown; when infti- 
tutions, a floriated with the affections of fome and the interefts 
of others, are fubverted ; when the prejudices and paffions of 
men are engaged, as it were, in a furious warfare; when new 
opinions arq forced into a violent concuffi n with the old ; when 
the firft, full of youthful vigour, are labouring for dominion, and 
the laft are Struggling with the dying energies of felf-preferva- 
tion ; we muft beware of imputing thofe diforders which muft: 
neceffarily arife in fuch a complicated ftate of things, to any one 
particular and exclusive caufe. Atheifm or irreligion had cer- 
tainly a very exteniive influence in producing thofe accumu- 
lated miferies, thofe acts of profcription, of injuftice, and 
cruelty, which (lain the pages of the revolution : but Atheifm 
itfelf was not equal to the production of fuch a mafs of calamity. 
Atheifm met with a juncture of circumftances highly favour- 
able to the explofion of its difaftrous principles; but the prin- 
ciples themfelves would have been much circumfcribed in their 
effects, if a variety of other caufes, all blending their mifchiev- 
ous influence, had not affifted their operation ; had not increaf- 
ed their ftrength, and dirTufed their rancour. Atheifm is cer- 
tainly a very powerful caufe of calamity; but'we muft not im- 
pofe on Atheifm a weight of effect greater than it canproduce. 
The practical evils of atheifm are, generally, restrained by the 
direct intereft which men have, and always will have, in re- 



( 1^6 ) 

with glaring impiety. A belief in the being of a 
God is not necefTarily or uniformly productive of 



{training them. Whatever men may think of the fpeculative 
principle, they muft, if they have a (park of common lenfe, 
know its pra6tical tendency as adverfe to the inte.refl of the 
individual as it is to that of the community. Atheifm can 
never exert any very general or exteniive influence, except in 
the crifis of revolutions; when fo many other caufes confpire 
to render it actively pernicious, and increafe ,its will to deftroy 
by arming it with the power of deftruction. 

The atheifm of the French owed its origin to the corrupt 
flate of Cbriftianity in France before the revolution ; and, per- 
haps, many of the evils, which we afcribe to atheifm, would, 
with more ju ft ice, be imputed to their primary caufe; that is, 
the pollutions with which popifh fuperftition had adulterated 
the Chriftian doctrine. Men of leifure, of a highly fpeculntive 
turn of mind, and a morbid temperature of body, are fometimes 
Atheifts; but the poiibn can never be difTufed through the bulk 
of mankind. The former may not always be able to prevent 
the in trillion of anxious doubts reflecting the firfl principle of 
religion; the latter do not theorize on the fubject; and when 
their actions are contrary to the principles which they profefs, 
they do not proceed fo much from the want of religious belief 
in the mind, as from the want of a religious fpirit in the heart. 
There arefeTvfficcuIath'c, but many prafiical Athetfl$\ there are 
few who really dilbelieve in the being of a God; but there are 
many, very many, in all countries iv/io live ivit/iout any fear of God 
before their eye:. The mob Of Paris, by whole hands molt of the 
fanguinary deeds of the revolution were perpetrated, were not 
properly fo much Atheifts as Fanatics; and as far as they were 
AtheiftSj their Atheifm was certainly the effect of that corrupt 
and polluted atftiehrifftan fuperftition in which they had been 
educated. The diftance between extremes, though it feern 
long, is in fact ihort. The change in the mind from one to 



( **f ) 

that fanctifying fenfe of his perfections, that kdrftir^- 
tion of his wifdom, and that iove ot his goodndsi 



the other Is often rapid and inftantpneous. From lelkz'ing ton 
7Hiich i men foon come to believe too tittle. 

Superfiitkm always, lilently, favours the growth M 'nhdel : ty; 
and, after a certain period, ahva. s hltH&atefy produces it. 
Hence governments mould beware of or k ring the miaifiefs of 
an eftabliihed church to bewilder the minds" of the ignorant 
with uncertain doctrines, and to preach ablurd or pernicious 
myfteries more than pra6tical godlinefs. 

That Atheifm renders the fentiments ferocious and th* heart 
favage I can readily admit; but I believe it w ill be found that 
religion, dege?ieraied into Fanaticifm> is an enemy as deftruiStive 
to tendernefs of feeling as the moft ftubborn Alheifm The 
Atheift, who really believes not in a God is not reftrai :. in 
the career of his crimes or the excels of his iuri.s by app»-ehen- 
fionsofa future judgment; but he is liable, to fome reftraint 
from the invilible operation of thofe fympatl ies which nature 
planted in the heart, and which Atheifm iUelf cannot always 
eradicate. But Fanaticifm e;vtinguilbes the benevolent affec- 
tions, and it calls in the fuppofed iandtions of religion to coun- 
tenance their extinction, and to encourage their violation. 
When cruelty rages in the bofom of an Atheift, there is a total 
w r ant of any religious influence to efiuage its fury ;. but vJun it 
ra^es in the bofom of a " anaiic. the i? e ofrtligion, in (lead tf 

reprcjjing its force, only incrcafes its ferocity. The Atheift may 
be cruel from the violence of pafiion; but the Fanatic is snore 
fo from the fedatenefs of principle. 

The Fanatic often perpetrates atrocities the moft revolting 
in order to do God fervice; for ? from a ftrange hallucination of 
ideas, which turn the blood into gall and the heart into itone, 
Fanaticifm makes the love of God compatible with the moft 
unrelenting barbarity. The Atheift delights in ensming: the 
Fanatic in torturing his victims; he thinks every groan which 



which engage che affections in his fervice, and make 
obedience to his will the law of the heart i the itaid 



they utter agreeable to God ; and he lengthens out the linger- 
ing agony to the longer! capacity of furTering. The Atheift 
"braves the terrors of eternity ; yet he does not always lofe the 
tendernefs of a man : but the Fanntic gnthers motives from 
eternity to juilify the mod atrocious violatiows of humanity. 

The refinements of torture and the aggravations of woe, 
which were practifcd in the Inquifition, give a ftriking repre- 
fentation of the force, with which religion, corrupted into 
iuperLiition and Fanaticifm, tends to flifle all the amiable fym- 
pathies of the heart, and to fubftitute in their room the mod 
favage cruelty and the moil implacable ferocity. The Atheitts 
who, in September 1/92, wantonly fported with the lives of 
their fellow-citizens, appear not to rank lower in the fcale of 
humanity, than the Fanatics who fhed the blood of the inno- 
cent in the maffacre of St. Bartholomew. 

Our Lord makes religion to conlift in the love of God and 
the love of man. What ever kind of prepofterous love Fana- 
ticifm may bear to God, it certainly cheriihes very little re- 
gard for its fellow-creatures ; for it is aflbciated with hate, bit- 
ter and implacable to all who have not fwallovved, or who will 
notfwallow the poifon of its corruptions. The Fanatic luppofes 
that God delights in fuperftkious forms, and takes pleafure in 
the mifery of his creatures. He fondly Hatters his own heart 
that the divine favour is exclufively appended to only one par- 
ticular form of worlhip, and that every other incites the di- 
vine abhorrence. The Fanatic is, therefore, infiigated by the 
moll powerful motives, motives drawn from the interefts of 
eternity, to e.ercife the luft of cruelty on all who think not 
as he thinks ; whole devotion is not manifefted by the fame 
proftrations, or whofe adoration is not aflfociaied with the 
fame forms. ' He feels no reilraiat from the kindly influence 
of the lucial principle, urging him to be mindful of the happi- 



( 129 ) 

criterion of intereft; and the perennial fountain of 
pleafure and of happinefs. 



nefs of his fpecies; for the force of that principle is annihilated 
by the invifible demon that works within his breaft, chilling 
the warmth of his affections, and infufinga deadly rancour into 
his fenfations. 

Fanaticifm perplexes and confounds the diftin6tions of right 
and wrong ; it maies right to be wrong, and wrong to be right: 
and, under its influence, religious belief which ought to be, and 
which, in a well educated mind, always is the ftrongeft {lay to 
right, gives the mod powerful impulfe to wrong The Fanatic 
either imagines that he is exempted from the weighty matters 
of moral obligation, or that God will permit their violation for 
the fake of fome trifling penance or fome unfocial aufterity. 
He deems them matters ofe^fy compenfation; and he, there- 
fore, feels little compunclion in their infraction. Thofe who 
do not like to practife the great duties of truth and juilice, are 
always predifpofed -to imbibe the delufions, and to embrace 
the demoniac principles of Fanaticifm. 

The Atheift who believes not in a future judgment, and 
feeks not the approbation of a fuperior power, can have no juft 
notions of moral obligation ; he regards morality as a fort of 
artificial contrivance, and truth and juftice as mere matters of 
human convention; and he deems them obligatory no farther 
than as they promote his prefent views, or contribute to his 
perfonal gratification. But Fanaticifm, while it relaxes all 
moral reftraints, often makes immorality a matter of co?ifcicnce. 
It, therefore, often gives a greater encouragement and a flronger 
itimulus to the violation of truth, of juttice, and humanity, than 
even the molt obftinate Atheifm. The Fanatic ftrips God of 
his refphndent attribute of univerfal good nefs, and makes him 
a partial and capricious being : and it may be doubted whether 
a belief in fuch a being, as Fanaticifm fuppofes God to be, be 
not productive of as much mifchief as the non-belief in the 

K 



( ijo ) 

1 8. We have only to caft our eyes around us to 
behold many who are by no means infincere believers 



exiftenee of any God at all. The Atheift has no ftandard of 
mora! excellence; the Fanatic has a falfe one. The principles 
of the Atheift prevent his moral improvement; thofe of the 
Fanatic promote his moral deterioration. The love of God, the 
only genuine principle of practical religion, elevates the heart 
towards heaven; it wafts the affections to the throne of mercy 
in the perfume of player, from which they defcend again 
upon the earth, frefh with the bloom, and warm with the glow 
of univerfal charity. But of this principle of the love of God, 
whofe fpirit is fo divine, and whofe operations are fo benefi- 
cent, the Atheift is as deftitute as the Fanatic, and the Fanatic 
as the Atheift. 

The heart of the Atheift is cold and favage; infenfible to the 
diftrelTes of thofe around him, as beings with whom he has 
only a tranflentand accidental connexion here, and with whom 
he is to hold no intercourfe hereafter. The heart of the Fana- 
tic is not cold with apathy, but hot with hate; net fo much 
infenfible to the diftrelTes of others, as rejoicing at their inflic- 
tion, when they are the diftrelTes of thofe who are not of his 
own perfuafion. He looks on all mankind, not only not as 
brethren, but as people whom he has a commillion from hea- 
ven to exterminate, and whom he perfecutes without mercy 
whenever he has the power. The Fanatic puts the victims of 
his r^ge to every torture which he can contrive in this world, 
and then breathes fervent ivijJics to heaven for their eternal damna~ 
t'ton in the next ! 

The Atheift perfecutes, perhaps tortures, his victims; and 
then fends them to the grave as to a place of eternal fleep. 
The Atheift is a brute, who. when his pallions are excited, 
rends and lacerates his fellow-men like fellow brutes ; the 
Fanatic aggravates his cruelty by religious mockery, and lings 
hallelujahs while the unfortunate objects of his malice are 



( i3i ) 

in the being of a God, yet living, as it were, without 
God in the world ; and many might be obferved who 
have themfelves a reafonable conviction that reve- 
lation is no fiction nor impofture, that the miracles 
recorded in the gofpcls were actually performed, and 
even fome might be noticed who have laboured to 
impart conviction to others, by the ftrongeft reafon- 
ing and the mod (Inking arguments, but who, not- 
withstanding, by the whole tenor of their lives, by 
their intemperance in the purfuit of animal pleafure, 
their eagernefs in the race of temporal diftinction, by 
their ambition of praife and their luft of gain, by the 
brittlenefs cf their friendfhips and the rancour of their 
enmities, feem to acknowledge that that Jefus, whofe 
religion they profefs, never lived; that he never 
preached temperance, humility, meeknefs, benefi- 
cence, forgiveneis of injuries; that he ne* er rofe from 
the dead, and that this world terminates alike the 
joys and forrows, the hopes and fears of man. On 
the other hand, we do meet with many perfons, par- 



wafting in the flames. Of the butchery which has been per- 
petrated, and th^defolation which has been produced both by 
Fanatics and by Atheilts, hiftory will furnifh many a melan- 
choly recital 5 and if it be difficult to determine on which fide- 
the guilt preponderates, it lhould teach governments to labour 
to prevent thefe hell-born fiends from fpreading their venom 
among the people ; and this can only he done by compelling the 
m'mifters of t lie eJlaWJJiment to teach nothing but that furb 

MORALITY, WHICH CHRIST TAUGHT, WITHOUT ANT CANT 
OR ANY MYSTERY. 

K 2 



( 132 ) 

ticularly thofe who are placed low in the vale of 
poverty, who have neither had leifure nor capacity 
to examine the evidences of revealed religion ; who 
have not what may be called a rational conviction 
of its truth, and who are unable to render to others 
a reafonable account of the hope that is in them, but 
yet whofe lives are an ornament to the religion 
which they profefs, whofe actions manifeft its fruits, 
and whofe affections kindle with its holy flame. 

19 But as it mud be confefTed that, where the 
mind is convinced without the heart being perfuaded, 
faith is dead, becaufe barren and unfruitful in the 
knowledge of the truth; fo, on the other hand, we 
muft acknowledge that where the affections are en- 
gaged in the practice of the duties, without the un- 
derftandmg being exercifed in the examination or 
acquainted with the evidences of revealed religion, 
faith refts on an unfafe and perilous foundation, eafily 
undermined by the fubtleties of ibphiftry, and fub- 
verted by the (hock of argument. He who knows 
not the ftrong pillars of evidence on which the reli- 
gion of Jefus refts, who is not able to give him who 
afketh a reasonable account of the hope that is in 
him, will not long remain unmoved by the reafoning 
of the infidel or the raillery of the fcoffer. The ig- 
norant man almoft always receives his (trongeft im- 
prefiion from the lad fpeaker ; and is liable to be 
whirled about, here and there, by every eddy of 
argument and every breath of folly. 



( *33 ) 

20. Where a rational conviction of the truth is 
wanting, faith is not eafily fixed; it fluctuates with 
every new opinion, and changes with every wind of 
doctrine. Hence ignorant people are always the 
eafy prey of vifionaries or Fanatics ; whofe absurd- 
ities they have not judgment enough to fee, and 
whofe crafty machinations thev have not iagacity to 
penetrate. Hence they are fomerimes perfuaded, 
on the flighted grounds, and the weakeft reafons, to 
forfake a pure, and plain, and rational worfliip, for 
one that is polluted with fuperftition , to leave what 
is Ample for what is myfterious ; to relinquish truth 
for error i and to prefer darknefs to light. Hence, 
in the prefent age, we have feen multitudes of the 
ignorant and the credulous ledaftray, from the plain 
paths of common fenfe, by itinerant impoflors; for- 
faking the Ample, the dignified, and the well-digefted 
prayers of the Church of England, for the confufed 
and crude abortions, the whining cant, and wild ex- 
travagance of extemporaneous devotion -, abandon- 
ing the Ample morality of Cnriu: for unintelligible 
doctrines, which have no foundation whatever in the 
words of fcripture, critically understood, andjudi- 
cioufly explained. 

2f. Where the mind is not furnifhed with true 
fcriptural knowledge, folly will often triumph over 
wiidom; and the fuffrages of the illiterate crowd 
will often run ftrongerin favour of thofe who inflame 
their feelings, than in favour of thofe who fpeak 

K 3 



( '34 ) 

plainly, but gently to their affections; of thofe who 
addrefs the imagination, than of thofe who endea- 
vour to convince by ftrength of argument. 

22. The religious faith, as I have faid, of a rational 
being, ought to confift of the aiTent of the mind in- 
corporated with the perfuafion of the heart. This 
is that faith which is lead liable to change or decay; 
and on whofe faving efficacy the greatefl: dependance 
may be placed. For it is that faith which God who 
has given us a faculty to difcern truth from error, 
and who has fo difpofed the evidence of revelation 
as not to fuperfede, but to encourage its exercife, 
requires at our hands. It is a faith, in the formation 
of which the mind concurs with the affections, and 
in whofe operations reafon moderates and directs 
the energies of fenfation. This alone is the charac- 
ter of that faith which is a reafonable fervice; which 
is moft agreeable to the father of fpirits, and to the 
genius of Chriflianity. 

23. In the formation and the operations of faith, 
the reafon and the affections mould, as much as is 
poffible, go hand in hand, and act in conjunction. 
Thus faith is preferved from the extravagance of en- 
thufiafm and the n.ifchievoufnefs of Fanaticifm; 
from the frothinefs of delufion and the barrennefs of 
inaction. If reafon lay the foundations of faith, the 
bulding cannot rife into a fair and beautiful flructure 
without the aid of the affections; but if the affections 



( '35 ) 

alone are employed in rearing it, the edifice, wanting 
the ftrong pillars of reafon, will hardly bear the beat- 



ing of the ftorm. 



24. The affections give to faith its beauty and its 
ufefulnefs; beauty that delights the eye, and ufeful- 
nefs that cheers the heart ; but reafon gives it ftrength 
and folidity; ftrength that no blaft can lhake, and 
folidity that is eternal. Reafon, uniting its force with 
that of the affections, makes the prefence of religious 
belief delicious to the individual and its operations 
beneficial to humanity, 

25. Without fome degree of rational conviction, 
religious belief refts, as it were, on a cloud of vapour; 
and it is fubject to all the alternations and capriciouf- 
nefs of prejudice in fome cafes, and to its ^bilinacy in 
others. We cannot give a rational affent to what we 
know not, any more than we can be faid rationally to 
prefer one thing to another without knowing or in- 
veftigating the right grounds of preference. Our belief 
in revealed truth, like our belief in any other truth of 
importance, jhouldbe rational that it may be firm. It 
fhould be the effect of the underftanding that it may 
remain the fubject of the will. From that to which we 
affent without knowing why, we are always liable to 
diffent without knowing wherefore. We have ken 
this truth exemplified in many recent inltances; and 
it is to this principally that the Fanatics owe the pre- 
fen: magic of infatuation which they poffefs, and the 

K. 4 



( & } 

prefent harveft of popular delufion by which they are 
fed. As it is impoflible to fee clearly when the 
vifion is dim, or the nerve of fight faint, or to hear 
diftinctly where the organ of hearing is paralytic ; fo it 
is impoflible to believe juftly when the organ of con- 
viction, which is the mind, is either incapable of act- 
ing, or has never been called into action. 

26. The faith of thofe, who have not leifure to 
profecute a diligent inquiry into the evidences of re- 
ligion, muft indeed always, in fome degree, reft on 
the authority of others. But, thanks be to God, 
that, in this enlightened period of this enlightened 
country, the faith even of the peafant or the artifan 
need not be a blind affent to they know not what, or 
they know not why. Their belief may be grounded 
on knowledge. Their minds may, without a wicked 
negligence on their own parts, be inftructed in the 
evidences of Chriftianity, fufficiently to give a rea- 
fonable account of the hope that is in them ; to com- 
bat the arguments, and to penetrate the fophiftry of 
the gainfayer. In a country in which there are few 
Chriftians who cannot read, in which there are few 
villages without fchools for the inftruction of the poor 
in the rudiments of learning, and none without a 
church for their improvement in righteouihefs, few 
indeed mud be the perfons who can complain, with- 
out injuftice, that they are deprived of the means of 
religious information. 



( '37 ) ' 

<&7« In thefe days many books have been publish- 
ed, and widely circulated, in which the evidences of 
revelation have been briefly, clearly, and forcibly ex- 
plained. And though the poor may meet with none 
of thefe treatifes, they may fupply the defect by the 
fludy of the fcriptures; by comparing the prophecies 
in the OldTeftament refpecting the Median with their 
completion in the New ; in the perfon, the life, the 
fuffe rings, the death, and the redirection of Jefus 
Chrifl. They may diminifh their doubts, and in- 
creafe their conviction by the ferious perufal of that 
wonderful prophecy, relative to the difperfion of the 
Jews, which occurs Deut. xxviii. and which they 
may behold fulfilled before their eyes. They, may 
fee its exact and almoft literal accompli foment in the 
fate of that extraordinary people, who are fcattered 
over the whole world, living among all the nations 
of the earth, but yecpreferving the language, the 
manners, and the inttitutions of their ancedors ; di- 
vided from . each other by kingdoms, by feas and 
mountains, but maintaining a fort of national inter- 
courfe like an united people; denying the Chriftian 
fcriptures, but bearing their concurrent teftimony to 
the truth of thofe of the Old Tedament; believing 
in the divine original of the law of Mofes, in whofe 
writings their prefent difperfion is threatened and 
defcribed, and, from many hints in the law and 
the prophets, dill expecting, with undiaken confi- 
dence, an end to their difperfion, and a reiteration to 
the country of their fathers. And if the prophetic 



( '3* ) 

proofs of the divine original of Chriftianity fhould be 
deemed vague, indefinite, and un fat is factory, (till 
even thofe of the meaneft capacities, who are not 
wilfully remifs or criminally indifferent in a matter of 
fuch great moment, may obtain a rational aflfurance 
of the truth of revealed religion, by carefully perufing 
only the Englifh transition of thofe memoirs of the 
founder of Chriftianity, which are contained in the 
writings of the four Evangelifts, of whom at lead two 
were actual fpectators of what they related, and the 
reft drew their accounts from the information of 
thofe who had been with Jefus from the beginning; 
who were well acquainted with the doctrines which 
he preached, and the miracles which he wrought. 
In the narrative of thefe four independant witnefTes, 
in which there is every mark of honeft truth and art- 
lefs fimplicity, let the unlearned inquirer confider 
the perfect doctrine and the fmlefs life of Jefus; let 
him compare the profound wifdom that is difplayed 
in the one, with the patience, the gentlenefs, the be- 
neficence that were vifible in the other; let him con- 
trail the fublimity of his character with the lowlinefs 
of his condition; the fplendour of his mi icles with 
the humblenefs of his deportment; the fear which 
he excited with the little power which he poiTcfTed; 
the popularity which he avoided, with that which, 
had he harboured any ambitious views, he might have 
acquired ; let him confider the total ablence of any 
thing like equivocation, duplicity, or lmpoflure in 
every word that he Ipoke; the prudence with which 



( 139 ) 

he conduced himfelf in the mod embarrafling cir- 
cumdances ; the fagacity of his anfwers to the mod 
perplexing quedions; the meeknefs with which he 
endured the mod humiliating infuksj the filence 
with which he abafhed the fcorner; the force and au- 
thority with which he rebuked the hypocrite; the 
tendernefs and affection with which he indrucled the 
fimple; the concern which he fhewed for the bodies 
and die fouls of men; the rcadinefs with which he 
relieved their wants, and the fympathy which he dif- 
covered for their iorrows; the love which he mani- 
fefted for his friends, and the fervour with which he 
prayed for his enemies; the fortitude with which he 
iudered a molt ignominious death, and the glory 
with which he role to an endiefs life. Thefe confi- 
derations are, I think, fufficient to prove, whether 
to thole who are funk in the vale of ignorance, or to 
thofe who have icaled the heights of learning, that 
Jefus was no irnpodor; but was what he declared 
himfelf to be, — a man fent from God to reveal the 
mod weighty truths, and to inftrucl and animate 
the world in the way of righteoufnefs. 

28-. But when the rich or the poor, the peafant or 
the philofopher have, by the inveftigatibn of the 
evidences of revealed religion, or by the dudyofthe 
fcriptures, attained to a reafonable conviction of the 
truth of Chridianity, let them well confider that faith 
is vain without works; let them not endeavour to 
fix the truth of religion in the underftanding without 



( i 4 o ) 

kindling its fpirit in the affections. Let them all 
remember, that an aflent to the truth of religion 
ought to lead to living righteoufnefs; and let me 
more efpecially admoniih the philofopher to con- 
fider, that the fubde refinements, the profound de- 
ductions, the fplendid fy (terns, or the lofty fpecula- 
tions of learning and of genius, are but vain and ufe- 
lefs things, unlefs they are affbeiafed with that wifdom 
which mends the heart, and maketh wife unto Ja Iva 
tion. 

29. Faith, when taken in its Uriel: fcriptural fig- 
nification, as comprehending, in one wordy the ajfent of 
the mind and the perjuafion of the hearty is necejfarily 
and uniformly productive of righteoufnefs. In this fenfe 
the word faith means not only the feed, but the fruits 
of righteoufnefs ; it reprefents the Christian religion 
not only as approved by the mind, but principled in 
the heart, and manifested in the conduct. In this 
fenfe the word faith is often applied in the fcrip- 
tures, as including a belief in the truth of the mif- 
fion of Jefus, and the practice of his precepts. Faith, 
when it fignifies only the conviclion of the mind, is not 
uniformly and necefTarily productive of righteouf- 
nefs. The understanding may be acquainted with 
the evidences of religion, where the ipirit of piety 
is not excited in the heart. 

3c. When we endeavour to imprefs the mind of 
an Athciit with a rational conviction of the being of 



( Hi ) 

a God, we fhould endeavour, at the fame time, to 
animate the heart with fuch a trull in his moral go- 
vernment, and fuch a lively fenfe of his fatherly- 
concern for the welfare of his creatures, as will cer- 
tainly engender benevolence in the difpofttion, and 
morality in the conduct. When we undertake to 
bring the evidences of Chriftianity home to the un- 
derstanding of a Deii't, we fhould, at the fame time, 
endeavour to bring its duties home to his affections. 
We fhould endeavour not only to make him believe 
that the founder of Chriftianity was a perfon fent 
from God to reveal his will, but fhould earneftly 
perfuade him to imitate the goodnefs of Chrift, and 
to follow the example of his finlefs life. We fhould 
afliduoufly fix the thoughts on this wholefome con- 
clusion, without which the glory of the Chriftian 
religion withers and decays, that faith is vain if it 
be not fruitful in good works 5 and we mould em- 
ploy every exertion to produce fuch a juft fenfe of 
the happinefs connected with the praftice of righte- 
oufnefs, as may warm and intereft the foul in its 
performance. 

31. The great work of faith is but half-finifhed 

where the mind is convinced without the heart being 

touched, or where the heart is touched without the 

mind being convinced. The faith of a being like 

man, highly intellectual and exquifitively fenfitive, 

fhould be the united effect of reafon and fenfation. 

The reafon fhould be able to difcern, and to defend 





( 14* ) 

the truth of religion, and the fenfations (hould glow 
with the flame of piety. There fhould be a vital 
principle of belief in the one, and a vital principle 
of action in the other. 

32. The perfection of faith con fit ft 9 in the convic- 
tion of the mind blended with the periuafion of the 
heart; or, in other words, in a ration j1 acknowledg- 
ment of the truths to be believed with the habitual 
performance of the duties to be pracli fed. The 
truths to be beiieved were intended to favour the 
growth and to promote the performance of the 
duties to be practifed ; and the one cannot be feparated 
from the other without doing violence to both. 
The truths to be believed are, the refurre&kn of the 
dead> a future life, and a day of judgment, in order to 
multiply and itrengthen the motives to practical 
obedience; and unlefs, through the operation of the 
reafon and the affections, thefe truths do deter from 
evil and animate to good, they are believed in vain. 

33. It does too often happen that the truth of re- 
ligion is acknowledged, and its evidences approved 
by the underftanding, when its power is net prac- 
tically evinced in the conduct. This melancholy 
oppofition of the mind to the heart, and of the con- 
duct to the judgment, generally takes place when 
the affections, which ought to be engaged on the 
fide of religion, are devoted to lefs worthy objects; 
abforbed in the cares of the world or the pleafures 



( H3 ) 

of fenfe, which wean the heart from God and caufe 
thofe whofe opinions are by no means tainted with 
the fpeculative tenets of infidelity to hold the truth 
in unrighteoufnefs, and to live as if they were really 
infidels. 

34. "While we are difcufilng the nature and incul* 
eating the neceffity of faith, it will, I think, be worth 
our while to employ a little time in confidering what 
are thofe ejfentials of belief without a fincere aflent 
to which true Chriftian faith cannot exift; and what 
are thofe acceflbries of belief which may be adopted 
or rejected ; which may be believed or difbelieved, 
without increafing the virtue of faith on the one 
hand, or diminifhing it on the other. 

35. The efTential matters of religious faith appear 
to me to be thefe, — that there is a God j that he 
made the world by his power, and governs it by his 
providence ; that the founder of the Chriftian reli- 
ligion was the favoured Son of God, who was put 
to death by the Jews, and who rofe again from the 
dead, fbefe are truths ejfential to be believed \ and 
without an affent to which, faith is imperfe5f. From 
thefe flow other indifptnfable truths, which have a 
near relation to the former, and are the great incen- 
tives to practical goodnefs 5 and which are principally 
thefe, — that this life is a (late of trial; and that there 
is a ftate of retribution after death, when all man- 
kind will be judged according to their works, and 



C *44 ) 

when the happincfs of Individuals will be proportion- 
ed to their improvement in righteoufnefs in the life 
which now is. Thefe are the truths, both fpecu- 
lative and practical, moft neceffiry to be imprefied 
upon the mind, and to be cherifhed in the heart , 
and he, to whofe confcience they are facred, and to 
whofe affections they are dear, cannot but be in the 
ftrait path to eternal glory, though he may not fub- 
fcribe to other points of doctrine which are lefs 
clearly revealed or more ambiguoufly expreffed ; 
which are more dark and dubious, and have no ne- 
ceffary connexion with righteoufnefs To all tboje 
Chriftiansy of all communions , who hold thofe effenttals of 
faith which I have enumerated, (and what sincere 
Chriftian of what communion is there who rejects 
them ?) we may and ought to give the right hand of 
fellowjhi-py however much we may differ from them about 
fome abftnife and myfterious matters of f peculation. 

36. Chridians are too prone to contend with each 
other about points not eilential to falvation -, and 
many of the religious difputes among Chriftians are 
mere difputes about words. Some ufe the words 
faith and grace in one fenfe, and others in a different; 
and then they fight about the word, when, perhaps, 
they are agreed about the doctrine. Few indeed 
are the Chriftians, except thofe •; the ncceffity 

of moral goodnefsy and think that the righteoufnefs of 
Chrijly or the nr/rightcovfnefs of Adam is made theirs 
by imputation, who do not concur in opinion about 



C 145 ) 

the eflentials of religion. They ail agree in the be- 
lief, that there is a God, that he is the moral gover- 
nor of the world, that J efus is the Chrift, the Mef- 
fiah, the Son of God, that he was put to death, and 
rofe from the dead; that this life is a ftate of trial, 
preparatory to another, in which every man will be 
recompenfed according to his works. Thofe who 
cordially acquiefce in thefe tenets, ought, in matters 
oflefs moment, to hold the unity ofthefpirit in the bond 
cf peace \ for thefe tenets are the main pillars of belief 
on whofe adamantine ftrength genuine Christianity 
will for ever reft ; defying the moil furious attacks 
and the fiercer! dorms. 

37. There are certain fubordinate articles of faith, 
about which great heats have, at different periods, 
been fomented in the Church, which have occafion- 
ed bitter difTenfions and implacable animofities ; but 
of which the profeflors of a religion, that breathes 
charity in every precept, would have done well to 
abandon the difcuflion, in order to provoke one ano- 
ther to love and to good works. It is not a little 
remarkable, that points of doctrine which tend not 
unto holinefs, and which cannot be important, be- 
caufe they are not distinctly revealed, are ufually 
difcufTed as if they were of the lad importance; as if 
the very exiftence of religion depended on their fup- 
port ; and as if, were they removed from the Chris- 
tian fabric, the foundations would give way, and the 
whole building fall to ruins. 

L 



( '46 ) 

5$. In religion, men are too much governed by 
the force of imagination. Hence, they are fo much 
captivated with the myfterious and the obfeure. 
They are delighted with fomething vaft and invifible, 
which they do not know and which cannot be known; 
but whofe heights fancy exalts and whofe dimenfions 
it expands. What appears before their eyes, they 
think little and dwarfifh ; becaufe it is not too vail 
for their perceptions. What is removed beyond 
the utmoft ftretch of the underftanding, they prize 
beyond meafure, becaufe it is hid in darknefs. Thus 
they think doctrines important in proportion as they 
are obfeure. What is eafy and fimple they depre- 
ciate ; what is difficult they extol ; what is obvious 
they neglect; and where the wayfaring man would 
not err, they are loft in an endlefs maze. Little do 
they confider that thofe points of uncertain fpecula- 
tion, to which as much confequence is attached as 
if they alone divided the confines of heaven and of 
hell, cannot be of fuch great importance, or they 
would not have been Jo ambiguoujly exprejfed-, that 
God would not have left any tenets ejjential to falvation 
liable to fitch a ftrange diverfity of opinions, that the 
moft confeientious Chrifiians have entertained Jentimen! $ 
the moft oppofite on their importance and their truth. 
But, forgetting this plain inference, which common 
fenfe fuggefts and found piety enforces, thofe Chrif- 
tians who love darknefs better than light, and pre- 
fer one impulfe of imagination to a thoufand deduc- 
tions of reafon, labour to explore the labyrinths, or 



( 147 ) 

to traverfe the clouds of myftery, while they lofe 
fight of truths which are as pure as they are plain, 
and which come home to the interefts and the bo- 
foms of all mankind. But there is, perhaps, to an 
ill-regulated mind and a vitiated tafte, a certain irre- 
fiftible attraction in the fhapelefs maiFes of abfurdity 
with which the myftic theology abounds; as, on 
fome occafions, a certain degree of darknefs feems 
to i-ncreafe, to an immeafurable bulk and ftature, the 
vapours rifing from fome fpreading moor; making 
the landfcape vantfti from the fight, and perplexing 
the traveller on his way. 

40. The Sceptic, who feoffs on religious fubjects, 
who derides all revelation as an impofture, who 
fpeaks with contempt of its evidences and without 
reverence of its author, who indulges himfelf in fool- 
ifh jetting and impious blafphemy on fubjects of 
which every ferious man who does not affent to 
the truth will confefs the importance, is a wretch 
unworthy the fociety of his fpecies, and hardly de- 
ferving the common offices of humanity. There is 
fuch a vaft accumulation of probabilities in favour 
of the truth of revealed religion as may well make 
the rafh paufe, and the fcorner dumb ; and even if 
the evidences of Chriflianity were not half fo fatis- 
faclory as they are, Hill the belief of it is fo nearly 
connected with the dearefl interefts of mankind, with 
their moil refrelhing hopes and their fweeteft confo- 
lations, that 71a unbeliever, whofe bofom glows wit& 

L2 



( '43 ) 

only one /park of tendernejs for his fellow- creatures y 
would difcufs its truths with levity, or load its fupporters 
with infult. But a fober and humble difTent even 
from the truth of revelation, though it may excite 
our concern, ought not to provoke our rage. It 
fhould rather awaken the feelings of companion than 
the virulence of fcorn ; it fhould rather produce 
gentlenefs of exhortation than intemperance of abufe. 
On any topics, and particularly on the weighty mat- 
ters of religion, it is not becoming to fpeak unad- 
vifedly with our lips. The unbelief of any man, as 
far as he employs no fcurrility to revile, and no fo- 
phiftry to fhake the belief of others, is fubject to 
the cognizance of God alone*. As there is one 
who judgeth we are not to pafs Jentence on the infidel 
before his time\ but are to leave him, though with 



* " Omnes in feipfum armat, qui in alios, quos errare credit, 
armatur. Par omnium in omnes jus eft. Qui fibi jus tribuit coer- 
cendi alios, idem aliis in fe ipfum idem jus ul concedat, necefie 
eft. Nulli homini aut ecclefiae judicium infallibile de errori- 
bus aliorum delatum eft. Quare ft coercitiones ullae admit- 
t.untur, quid erit Chriftianifmus aliud, quam gladiatorum in 
1"c invicemconcurrentium arena, ac mutua inque vicem rediens 
incarceratio, relegatio et flagellatio? Hie itaque primus obex 
ponendus eft, alioquin facile ulterius ad fanguinem et caedem 
ibitur. Facilis ab una poena ad aliam progrelTus eft ; et ubi 
femel horror poenarum animo exemtus eft, fanguis etiam tan- 
dem vilis haberi incipit. Nee praetextus defunt. Crudelitas 
dum fibi indulget, facile manlellum repent, quo fe tegit." Vid. 
Epifcop. op. torn. ii. Apol. Coufeif. Rcmonft. p. 210, 2 11. 



( 149 ) 

trembling apprehenfion, to the great day of account, 
when the fecrets of all hearts fhall be revealed. 

41. The confcioufnefs that men do not fometimes 
notice what is placed before their eyes, and do not 
always comprehend truths that feem to others too 
plain to be miftaken, fhould check the riling ebul- 
litions of intolerance in the human breaft; fhould 
make us bear with the froward, and conduct our- 
felves with gentlenefs toward thofe who oppofe 
themfelves. 



L3 



RELIGION WITHOUT Cx\NT. 



-« 



¥he Docfrine of Regeneration, rational, fcriptural, and 

prafticaL 



T. The doctrine which principally engrofies the 
confideration of the Fanatics is that of regeneration -, 
on which they arc unfparing of their cant, and lavifh 
of their impofture. It is the pillar of their hypo- 
crify, and the corner (lone of their fuperftition. 
When they attempt to explain this important arti- 
cle of the Chriftian religion, they utter only a con- 
fufed heap of words without meaning. Indeed words 
without meaning and founds, by which no certain 
ideas are conveyed, are the props of their fraud, and 
the engines of their extortion *. 



* V If the trumpet," fays the Apoftle, " give an uncertain 
found, who fhall prepare himfelf to the battle." The trumpets 
which the Fanatics blow in our flreets and villages, in our 
churches and conventicles, are, indeed, very fonorous; but that 
they utter any very diflinft founds, I cannot take upon me to 



( i5i ) 

2 The Fanatics fuppofe regeneration to be a 
change wrought in the foul in direct oppofition to 
the will and the affections. According to their no- 
tions, the rational faculties of the creature are as 
little concerned in the production of the new birth 
as they are in that of our original formation in the 
womb. They feign that man is, by the conftitution 
of his nature, fo prone to evil, and fo averfe to 
good, that his depravity is inherent and incurable. 
This depravity, they fay, expofes us, from the ntft 
moment of our exigence, to God's wrath and dam- 
nation. Thus they reprefent God as angry with us, 
for no other reafon than becaufe we are born. 
But this is fo grofs a perverfion of fcripture and 
reafon, that it hardly deferves a confutation. God 
cannot be angry with us merely for being born; for 
we are born without our confent, and have no choice 
given us either to be born or not, either to have or 
not to have exiftence. 

3. Our natural birth can be no tranfgreflion, for 
there can be no criminality in any act whatever to 
which the will does not confent. All Cm mull ne- 



1 

declare j and their hearers feem, in general, no more edified by 
the noife, than by a dream arifing from indigeftion. St. Paul 
(1 Cor. xiv. 19.) prefers five words fpoken with the under- 
standing to ten thoufand words fpoken in an unknown lan- 
guage. Let the Fanatics abandon their fenfelefs jargon for 
plain common fenfe. 

L 4 



( 152 ) 

cefTarily be the violation of Tome known law, and the 
doing of fomething which our confcience or our rea- 
fon tells ought not to be done; but as we cannot be 
the fubjects of any legal obligation before we have 
exigence, and, moreover, as we can do neither right 
nor wrong, before we have any perception of right or 
wrong, it is clear that we are not f inner s hy birth ; 
and that we are not, and cannot be created in guilt 
or wickednefs. 

4. It is God who makes us. It is his power 
which fafhions us in the womb ; and it is only by 
his permiffion that we come into the world. As 
our exiftence, therefore, is the gift of God, and our 
birth is the exertion of his will, we cannot fuppofe 
that he, who directs us to do good, would have given 
us a nature incapable of doing it -, or that he would 
threaten us with punifhment for working iniquity, if 
he had rendered our nature fo addicted to fin, that 
we could not help finning. God defires us to work 
righteoufnefs; and he has given us a capacity to do it. 
He has not by an arbitrary decree made us finners, 
and then, by an act of tyranny, threatened to punifri 
us for not obeying a law which he had previouQy 
made us incapable of obeying. But, if we came into 
the world, fuch vile, debafed, and corrupt creatures, 
as the Fanatics tell us, with fo much depravity in 
our flefh, and (o much guilt clinging to our fouls, fin 
would be unavoidable on our parts. Sin would be 
our inftinct, our nature; and it would be as natural 



( *S3 ) 

for us to commit all manner of crimes, as it is for a 
horfe to eat grafs. We mould have as ilrong a bias 
to moral corruption, as we have to drink when we 
are dry, or to eat when we are hungry. But this 
would be to deftroy the very nature of fin •, for fin is 
an abufe of our free will; and if the will were not 
free to choofe either good or evil, we mould no 
longer be accountable for our actions. But God, 
evidently, fuppofcs that we have a capacity either 
to keep his commandments, or to break them j for 
he would not otherwife have determined to judge us 
according to our works. 

5. The fuppofition that we are born finners makes 
God the author of our fin ; for, as it is by his will 
that we are born, it mufl be his fimplejfo/ that con- 
ftituted us finners, if we came into the world in a (late 
of fin. Thus this abfurd doctrine would throw the 
blame of all our tranfgre (lions on our good Creator. 
Let us beware of indulging fuch horrid blafphemy; 
let us beware of harbouring notions fo totally oppo- 
fite to the goodnefs of God. If God had made us 
finners, as he certainly would have made us if we 
were finners from the womb, he could not with any 
reafonable (how of juftice have propofed to punifh us 
for our fins, or to judge us by our works *. For, 

* The following text is frequently urged by the advocates 
of original corruption as decifive in their favour: " Behold 
I was ihapen in wickednefs; and in fin hath my mother con- 
ceived me." Pfalm li 5. " The words," fays Jeremy Taylor, 
"are an Hebraifmj and flgnify nothing but an aggranda- 



( »54 ) 

would it not be not only rank injuliice, but revolt- 
ing cruelty in any parent, to punifh a child for ac- 



tion of hisfinfulnefs." u If David," continues this great Theolo- 
gian, " had meant this of himfelf, and that in regard of original 
fin, this had been Jo far from being a penitential exprtjjion, or a 
c0?l f c JJ- n ^, °fhisfn, that it had been a plain accufation of God, and 
an excufng of himfelf As if he had faid, " O Lord, I confefs I 
have fumed in this horrible murder and adultery, but thou, O 
God, Jinoivejl hozv it comes to pafs, even by that fatal punijhment 
•which thou didjl, for the Jin of Adam , injlitl on me and all man^ 
hind 3000 years before I tuas born, 'hereby making me to fall into 
fo horrible corruption of nature, that, unlefs thou didjl ir re fifthly 
force me f ro77i it, I cannot abjlain from any fin, being 77iofi naturally 
inclined to all." Who would fuppofe David to make fuch a 
confefiion, or, in his forrow, to hope for pardon for upbraiding 
not his own folly, but the decrees of God ?" See Practice of 
Repentance, 394, 3q6. John Taylor, of Norwich, makes many 
obfervations on this text, firnilar to thofe of his name-fake 
the Bifhop of Down and Connor. He calls it " an hyperbolical 
form of aggravating fin, whereby he (the Pfalmift) loadcth him- 
felf, and ftrongly condtmneth the impurity of his heart, and 
the loofe he had given to his own unlawful inclinations." See 
John Taylor's Scripture Doctrine of O. S. 4th edit. p. \Z~ . 
On this expreflion of the Pfalmift, Grotius fays, " Senftis eft 
J\on 72unc tamu77i, fedet a pueritia meafspius peccain. Eft enim 
loquendi genus l,Vc;ooA<hcv (fupt rji ctivum) ut oftendit col- 
latio." Job xx:a. 18. Pfalm xxii. 10, II. lviii. 4. Ixxi. 0, 0. 
Efaiae xlviii. 8. Vid. Grot op. torn, 1. p. 231. The note of 
the great Le Clerc on this paflagc is well worth reading. I 
fhall extract a part of it. — " Earn refpicit setatem, qua deliu- 
quere potuit, non cum primum formanetur in uteio matris, 
quo tempore peccare rcquibat; omne cnitn peccatum, cum fit 
violatio legii Divin.e, notam cam noceflarid ft at uil ; aut certe 
nofci potuiife a delinquente, nee nifi ejus culpa ignotum 5 pof- 



( Hi ) 

tions of which he himfelf was the author; or for a 

rnode of conduct which he had irrefiflibly compelled 
him to purfue ? And, yet, if we fuppofe that we 
are born finners, fo difpofed to evil that we ruih 
into moral corruption from neceflity rather than 



tulatque ut is rationis compos fit, hoc eft, norit quid agat, ab 
eoque etiam abllineat, fi velit, fine quibus rebus, nemo reus 
h^hieri queat. Haec, quae recH ratione et ufu fcripturae nitun- 
tur, nunquam aliter intellecla fuiflent ; ft femper chriftiani 
ratiocinandi et interpretandi artibus asque polluirTent. Sed 
temporibus , quitus hce artes parum notcc> aut negledtce erant> fine 
declamitandi et argutandi facilitate, not a funt dogmata f ante ra- 
tioni plane contraria, nee magis fcripturce confentanea, ad qiue 
Scrigtorum facrorum ab wiper it is pojlea detorta funt. Et tajnen 
nobis ea fazcula y quafi norma veritatis, hodie proponuntur, eorum- 
que commenta, injiar religionis Chri/liance defenduntur /" Vid. 
Cleric. Lib. Hagiog. fol. Amftel. 1/31. p. 314, 315. Another 
paflage, on which much ftrefs is laid by the patrons of this 
pernicious doctrine, is Job xiv. 4. " Who can bring a clean 
thing out of an unclean ? Not one." John Taylor, in his maf- 
terly book, fays, that " this is a fentence of the proverbial kind; 
and ufed to fignify that nothing can be more perfect than its ori- 
ginal. And, therefore, as it fuits all cafes, muft be underftood 
according to the fubject to which it is applied. Here it evidently 
flands in relation to our mortality. As if he had faid, Man is 
born of a woman. We fpring from a mortal flock, and there-' 
fore are frail mortals" Taylor, p. 142. 

I muft here flay to remark that, in this place, Job xiv. 4, the 
feventy read *{$ yap xaQctoo; select aito fuirs ; literally, who fhall 
be clean from pollution ? A man that has told a lie cannot, in 
refpedl to moral purity, be in the fame ftate as if he had always 
fpoken truth ; nor can he who has violated his integrity be as 
if he had been uniformly juft. 



( '56 ) 

from choice, we cannot help cafting the imputation 
of injuftice and of cruelty upon God. But the fcrip- 
tures, when rightly underftood, and not perplexed 
and obfcured by thofe who make God the author 
of fin, and ufe the gofpel as a cover for their un- 
godly practices and pernicious doctrines, — the fcrip- 
tures lead us to a very different conclufion. They 
exprefbly declare that man is born pure, upright, and 
innocent j fo innocent that our Saviour reprefented 
righteous perfons under the emblem of little children. 
Nothing can be more harmlefs, and fimple, and 
lovely than little children; and inftead of being born 
depraved, guilty, and objects of God's indignation, 
they are created unvitiated and finlefs, and more 
efpecially objects of the divine love and protection. 

6. It is clear, then, from the authority of our Sa- 
viour, who could not lie, and who mud have rightly 
underftood the doctrine which he had received com- 
miffion from his father to preach, that little children 
are born innocent -, and that confequently the nature 
of man is not neceffariiy, and by an arbitrary ap- 
pointment made vitiated or depraved. If little chil- 
dren were born, as the Fanatics aflert, corrupt and 
finful creatures, objecls of wrath, and fubject to pu- 
nifhment, the unhappy parent might well mourn 
over his offspring* 3 fome of whom are, perhaps, 



* The Calvinifts will tell you that hell is full of little chil- 
dren not a fpan long. 



( Hi ) 

hardly put into the cradle before they are carried to 
the grave, or who do not arrive at years of difcre~ 
tion before they are covered with the darknefs of 
death *. If guilt and wickednefs were the inherent 
and efifential properties of human nature, well might 
the parent lament the untimely deiiruclion of his 
children, who would be carried into a place of tor- 
ment, and born only to be eternally miferable. 

7. But as the doctrine of hereditary depravity is 
an unfcriptural fiction, and as the guilt of Adam is 
not tranfmitted to his pofterity, let no parent forrow, 
as one without hope, for his little innocents who are 
fuddenly nipped by the blaft of death ; for the mo- 
ment they expire, they are conveyed by angels into 
Abraham's bofom. They are only taken from the 
evil to come, and dying before they can diftinguifh 
right and wrong, they die without tranfgreflion, and 
pafs from the realms of mortality into manfions of 

s lor y- j 

8. Before men can pofllbly deferve punifhment 
for fin, they mud be per/anally finners. They muft 
have wilfully violated fome divine law ; for we can- 
not fuppofe that God would punifh one man for 
the offences of another. God exprefsly declares 
that every man (hall bear his own burthen 5 fufier 



* If the doclrineof hereditary corruption were true, it would 
fee a duty, paramount to all others, not to marry. 



( '58 ) 

for his own fins ; and be recompenfed according to 
his own righteoufnefs. Before men can be fubject 
to the punifhment of human laws, they muft have 
violated thofe laws; and before thev can become ob- 
noxious to the punifhment of the divine laws, they 
muft have been guilty of actual tranfgrefilon. But 
how can infants offend againft laws of whofe obli- 
gations they cannot be fcnfible? No guilt can be 
imputed where there is no capacity of diftinguifhing 
good and evil, and of choofing between them. But 
do any of us poffefs this capacity till we have been 
fome years in the world, till reafon begins to dawn, 
and confeience to expand ? Infants cannot, there- 
fore, be born finners, nor fubject to the divine dif- 
pleaiure. Indeed the fuppofnion is the abfurdeft of 
all abfurdities, and can be entertained only by thofe 
who are as ignorant of the fcriptures as they are 
infenfible to the divine perfections. 

9. But if men are not born finners, how do they 
become fo ? The anfwer is eafy. By neglected 
education, vicious example, and wilful infraction of 
the faiutary dictates of reafon and of confeience. 
Sin is not an innate (late of the difpofition, but an 
acquired habit. Its growth is flow and gradual. So- 
lomon, the v/ifeit of men, and whofe reafonings on 
human nature prove him to have been intimately 
acquainted with the human heart, has bequeathed 
this prudent exhortation to thofe who have the care 
of the early years of man. Train up a child in 



( '59 ) 

the way that he fhould go, and when he is old he 
will not depart from it.* The king of Ifrael would 
never have delivered this fage counfel, if the nature 
of man were radically depraved and vicious ; for it 
would be impoffible, by the moft judicious educa- 
tion or management, to make a child walk in the 
right way, in whofe dipofition the Author of nature 
had planted an irrefiftible propenfity to go in the 
wrong. But God has imparted no fuch bias to evil 
to the human will; he has left man free to choofe 
either good or evil. Sin is, therefore, not a matter 
of neceffity but of choice. 

10. U fuch be the nature of man, pure and in* 
corrupt, free to choofe either good or evil, but lia- 
ble to temptation and capable of corruption, it is 
plain that man must be a sinner before he 
is a penitent; and that no change is neceffary to be 
wrought in the heart and' difpofition of mati, till habits 
cf fin are incorporated in his frame. But, according 
to the doctrine of the Fanatics, that change of mind 
and affections which is called the new birth, is full as 
neceffary to the falvation of an infant that is born in 
a ftate of innocence as of an old man that is harden- 



* " Si malos habitus anteverterimus, bona educaticne, ad 
fene&utem ufque, lint excluli, certe magna ex parte. Non 
fequitur tamen hinc, ut male edacati femper lint nequam, aut 
bene educati boni: fatis eft hoc etfe plerumque - veruro, aut 
certe fkpius." Cleric, in Prov. xxii. 6. 



( i6o ) 

ed in habits of fin. If people came into the world 
a rotten mafs of corruption and depravity, their 
doctrine would be true ; but as children are born 
ktnoeentj and fpecial objects of God's love and pro- 
tection, no change can be neceffary to be wrought 
in their minds and affections, their difpofitions and 
habits, till, by an abufe of their free-will and their 
rational faculties, they have tranfgrefied the divine 
law, and become obnoxious to punifhment. For 
if children be born innocent, their difpofition is as 
pure as it can be, till it becomes tainted by depravity, 

ii. The innocence of little children fits them for 
heaven; for our Lord has declared "theirs is the 
kingdom of heaven /' This proves that no change is 
wanting in the human heart till it is vitiated with 
moral corruption ; for the great end of the new birth 
is to promote that wholefome change in the habits, which 
makes the pojeffcr meet for the kingdom of heaven. Our 
Saviour tells his difciples that unlefs they be con- 
verted, and become as little children, they cannot 
enter into the kingdom of heaven. Here he is fo 
far from declaring human nature to be originally 
corrupt and vicious, that he fuppofes depravity not 
to be the effect of our nature but the growth of our 
habits ; and he makes true righteoufnefs to confifi in a 
return to that Jtmplidty and innocence which we bring 
into the world, and which we do not lofe till after 
1b me continuance in it; till a perverfe education, 
evil examples, and bad habits have corroded our 



( i6i ) 

original purity, and given us an unnatural bras to 
iniquity. 

12. But when we have loft the purity, the fim- 
plicity, and innocence in which we were born, then 
a change in the mind and difpofition becomes ne- 
cefTaryj then we cannot hefaved unle/s y in the language 
of our Lord, we be converted, and become as little chiU 
drew, that is, unlefs the heart be cleanfed from ma- 
lice and from guile. 

13. A man muft be a Tinner before it is neceflfary 
for him to be a penitent. Repentance implies a 
ftrong conviction of finfulnefs ; but a man cannot 
repent of fins which he never committed, and which 
confequently can make no impreffion upon his torn 
fcience. Moral guilt mud, therefore, be firft con- 
traded by fome aclual> perfonal tranfgrej/ions, before 
we can be accounted finners in the fight of God : 
and when perfonal difobedience has made us finners, 
it is neceffary that a change be wrought in our mo- 
ral difpofition and habits, that we turn from fin unto 
holinefs, and be renewed in the fpirit of our minds. 

14. Thus the doctrine of regeneration becomes 
clear and eafy; for regeneration implies a reforma- 
tion from bad habits unto good ; a return from the 
paths of iniquity unto thofe of righteoufnefs : it is, 
in fact, only another name for repentance confirmed; 
that repentance, which caufeth not only ibrrow for 

M , 



( i6i ) 

fin, but produces newnefs of life. The change 
which a repentance, thus genuine and fincere, ne- 
ceffarily occafions in the mind and affections, is very 
aptly reprefented in fcripture as a new birth. It is 
a change which caufes the finner to be fo different 
in his temper and conduct from what he was before, 
as to deferve the name of a new creature. He is 
ameliorated in heart and mind j he loathes fin ; and 
he glows with zeal in the purfuit of righteoufnefs. 
The love of God, by degrees, becomes the ruling 
paffion of his foul. He is warmed with a pcr- 
fuafion that fin is his greateft mifery, and goodnefs 
his greateft advantage. Thus there is a total change 
in his moral qualities. The outward form of the 
man continues the fame -, but his inward difpofition 
is altered. This is called in fcripture, a renewing of 
the mind. Thus, for inftance, when a drunkard, 
who has long lived in habits of intemperance, be- 
ginning to fee his error, and to apprehend his dan- 
ger, fummons up refolution to forfake that fin which 
fo eafily befets him, and in whofe fnares he has been 
fo long entangled : or, when a liar returns to the 
practice of truth; a thief to the paths of integrity; 
when a mifer conquers his love of money, and in- 
ftead of being hard-hearted and felfifh, becomes 
kind and charitable to his fellow-creatures ; in thefe 
cafes, thefe different tranfgreffors, by turning away 
from their fins, their bad propenfities and habits, to 
habits, purfuits, and affedtions, more fuitable to the 
Chriftian character and the commands of the gof- 



( $9 ) 

pel, become new creatures. Their hearts are purg- 
ed, and their thoughts purified 5 their inclinations 
improved, and the whole man ameliorated. Such 
changes are abfolutely neceffary in Juch fmnersy for he 
who dies hardened in habits of only a fingle fin, can- 
not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Neither 
fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effe- 
minate, nor abufers of themfelves with mankind, 
■ 

nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor re- 
vilers, nor extortioners, (hall inherit the kingdom of 
God. 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10. 

15. In the fcripture, inveterate habits of Cm are 
called the old man, fee Eph. iv. 22. which we ,are 
defired to put off, and, in its (lead, to put on the 
new man, or habits of righteoufnefs and true holinefs. 
While we live in habits of fin, we are the fervants 
of fin -, fin is our matter, and rules us at difcretion : 
but when we forfake our fins, and repent from our 
dead works, or thofe works of ungodlineis which 
will end in eternal mifery, we become, as it were, 
new creatures, created again in Chrift Jefus unto 
good works, which lead to glory and immortality. 

16, The fcriptures feem to intimate that there 
are fome perfons who need no repentance. See Luke 
xv. 7. And our Saviour himfelf exprefsly declares, 
" I came not to call the righteous, but finners to re- 
pentance;" Luke v. 32. evidently fuppofing that 
all men are not polluted with the guilt of tranlgref- 

M 2 



( '64 ) 

fion, and that there are fome who are rrii Jlaves to 
fin. Such perfons are ufually thofe who are brought 
up under pious parents in habits of righteoufnefs, 
and pafs from the cradle to the grave without any 
flagrant or mortal fin. They make the divine law 
the rule of their lives, the ftandard of their conduct, 
and the meafure of their intereft and their happinefs. 
They live (tcq from all habitual offences, from drun- 
kennefs, from uncleannefs, from lying and injuftice ; 
and commit none of thole immoralities, on account 
of which men will be excluded from heaven. Now, 
as repentance implies a total change of heart and 
life, of the mind and affections, it is not required 
in thofe whofe lives are regulated by the rules of 
the gofpel, and in whofe affections the love of God 
prevails. But, neverthelefs, even the righteous, of 
whom the Jcripture declares that they need no repent- 
ance, will be found occqfionally to offend; but their 
tranfgreffions will not be thofe which indicate rooted 
depravity, but only human infirmity; and we may 
fafely believe, that a good and merciful God will 
not lay to the charge of his creatures any trifling 
and venial trefpaflfes, which do not indicate fo muGh 
the perverfenefs of guilt, as the imperfections of 
humanity. 

17. Though there may be fome, who fo feldom 
offend, or whofe offences are fo few and fo venial, 
who are fo entirely free from all habitual fins, and 
from all flagrant vices, as to be faid, in fcripture, to 



t m ) 

need no repentance j yet the greater part of man- 
kind are fo imbruted in corruption, and fo fallen 
from the uprightnefs of their nature, that, unlefs they 
are renewed by the power of repentance operating 
on the fpirit of their minds, they cannot efcape the 
wrath to come. Mod men, from neglected educa- 
tion, vicious parents, and evil examples, are foon 
imbued with moral pollution. They depart from 
the innocence of their youth, and the integrity in 
which they were created. They begin the career 
of their unrighteoufnefs with fingle fins, which, by 
being often repeated, ftrengthen into habits. Then 
guilt grows entwined around their hearts, and fin 
reigns in their members. As their affections be- 
come depraved, their underftanding becomes dark- 
ened. Their evil habits hold them in chains -, they 
are a law in their members, whofe force they find 
it hardly poflible to controul; for nothing is fo des- 
potic as habit, and the fcriptures reprefent it as 
almoft invincible. 

1 8. Habit is juftly called a fecond nature, and 
we are told by the higheft authority, that it is ar 
difficult for an Ethiopian to change his fkin, or a 
leopard his fpots, as for a tranfgreffor to depart from 
the fins which have become rooted in his heart and 
mind by long indulgence. But, woe to the habitual 
finner, if he die unregenerate, if no change take place 
in his habits before death hath made that change 



( 166 ) 

impoffible! Woe, I fay, to the impenitent and 
hardened tranfgreffor, for he will pafs into mifery 
and torment ! 

19. The change that is wrought in the mind and 
affections of the finner muft not be fictitious, but 
real ; not diffembled, but fincere. Let us therefore 
fee how this change begins, and what are the figns 
of its having taken place. 

20. The firft beginning of any faving change in 
the breaft of a finner is a forrow for fin ; a forrow 
pricking the confcience, and troubling the foul. 
This forrow will always be affociated with a ftrong 
conviction of having tranfgreffed the law of God, 
and of deferving punifhment for our difobedience. 
It is a forrow that, in its firft commencement, is 
ufually excited more by the fears of hell than the 
hopes of heaven. It is a ftronger fenfe of the juft- 
ice of an offended, than of the tender mercies of a 
reconciled and reconciling God. But as repentance 
begins to fhew its fruits not only in the dereliction 
of habits of fin, but in the performance of acts of 
righteoufnefs, the terrors of a troubled confcience 
gradually fubfide in peace of mind, and fear vanifhes 
in joy of heart. 

a 1. The law of God, as manifefted in the gofpel 
of Chrift, and which requires us to live foberly, 



( i6 7 ) 

righteoufly, and godly, in this prefent world*, was 
intended for our benefit. If we keep it, it will lead 
us to happinefs ; if we violate it, to mifery. All fin 
confifts in the tranfgrefiion of this law, which re- 
quires fincere obedience ; and a fteady conviction of 
its juftice, of our duty to obferve it, and of the pu- 
nifhment that awaits the violation, can alone lay the 
foundation, and prepare the heart for the practice 
of repentance. For we cannot repent without 
knowing that we are finners, or being confcious that 
we have fomething to repent of. We are finners 
only fo far, and no farther than we have difobeyed 
the divine will, or acted contrary to the fober dic- 
tates of our reafon and our confcience ; only fo far 
as we have trefpaffed againft the law infcribed in the 
gofpel, or the law written on our hearts. 

22. We cannot violate a fingle precept in the law 
of that gofpel whofe authority we acknowledge, or 
of that unwritten law of confcience whofe obliga- 
tions we feel, without offending God; and when 
God is offended, nothing but repentance can reftore 
us to his favour; and we are affured that there will be 

joy in heaven over one /inner that repenteth. 

23. No repentance can be acceptable to God, 
but that which works not only contrition of heart, 



* The gofpel of Chrift is nothing more than a rule of life. 
See Anti-Calvinift, Second Edit. p. 25—28. 

M 4 



( i68 ) 

but newnefs of life. The confclence muft not only 
be racked with remorle, but a change muft be pro- 
duced in the pratlical habits, equivalent to a new crea- 
tion. To the regenerate man old things are pafled 
away. He forfakes his former habits ; his affections 
are fixed on new and better objects j he becomes lefs 
grofs and fenfual; he learns to refift, to combat, and 
to conquer the vicious propenfities of his animal 
nature \ and the more the outward man decayeth, 
the more he is ltrengthened with might in the inner 
manj his mind and affections are renewed day by 
day. As the great work of repentance proceeds, 
the mind becomes more ftrongly imprefied with a 
fenfe of duty, and the affections more fervid and 
zealous in the practice. When the affections are 
fet on any thing, the practice is eafy, becaufe it is 
pleafant. When the heart is warmed with the ge- 
nuine flame of holinefs, the practice becomes de- 
lightful; for it is affociated with a pleafure that 
pafTeth knowledge. 

24. He who is hardened in habits of iniquity, 
thinks righteoufnefs a foe to pleafure and an enemy 
to happinefs; but little does he know of the plea- 
fantnefs that is to be found in her paths ; and little 
can he imagine the joy of heart which fhe fupplies. 
But when the finner turns to God, he finds that he 
had formed a very miftaken notion of the nature of 
religion and the power of piety. For he foon learns 
by experience, that the joy which flows from per- 



( i-h ) 

Jeverance in goodnefs cannot be compared with the 
utmoft pleafure that can fpring from habits of un- 
godlinefsj and that the confolation to be derived 
from keeping the commandments of God is fo great 
as not to bear any comparifon with that pleafure 
which can in any circumiiances accrue from their 
violation. 

25. The ftrongeft token of the reality of our con- 
verfion to God, and of the deftruction of the power 
of fin in our hearts, is conftancy, and zeal, and de- 
light in doing the will of God. For the righteous 
are perfuaded and convinced that their greater!: in- 
tereft and happinefs confift in the practice of right- 
eoufnefs. 

26 Obedience to the divine will, to the law of 
reafon and of confeience, and to thofe rules of con- 
duct which our Lord inculcated, muft increafe the 
fum of our earthly enjoyments; and it has the pro- 
mife of eternal glory. But, though obedience to 
the divine will be evidently our greateft gain, yet 
men are too apt to imagine that it is their greateft 
lofs. They place their affections on perifliable 
things , on the gratifications of animal defire ; and 
they forget that the carnal mind, or the mind, which, 
inftead of governing, is governed by the appetites, 
is enmity againft God. 

27. Before men who have long gone aftray in the 



( 170 ) - 

paths of unrighteoufccfs, whofe hearts h?.ve been 
depraved, or whofe minds have been darkened by 
long continuance in iniquity, can be brought to 
know that godlinefs is great gain, they mud, in the 
language of the fcripture, be born again. The dif- 
pofition of their minds muft be regenerated, and a 
new fpirit infufed into their fouls. 

28. In fome finners, the change which is wrought 
by the fpirit of holinefs is more complete than in 
others. In fome the word of God brings forth 
thirty fold, in others fixty, in others ninety, in pro- 
portion to the fincerity and honefty of the heart to 
which it is communicated. And repentance has 
different degrees of fruitfulnefs. In fome finners a 
more thorough and radical change of the mind and 
affections takes place than in others ; but no finners 
can be faid to be eftablifhed in repentance, or to 
have had that change effected in their moral difpofi- 
tion which (hall fave their fouls, in whom all habitual 

fins are not forfaken, and who do not abftain from the 
commiffion of thofe tranfgrefiions, of which St. Paul 
declares, that he who commits them (hall not enter 
into heaven. 

29. Even the regenerate will indeed fometimes 
offend, but their offences will be few, and will favour 
more of infirmity than of guilt. Thev will not trcf- 
pafs in any matter which fhews deliberate malice 
and wickednefs, great obliquity of principle, of fet- 



( i7i ) 
tied corruption of heart. Trifling errors and venial 
imperfections may difcolour the purity of their con- 
duct, but which will difappear in the charity that 
glows in their affections, in the truth that will cha- 
racterize their promifes, and the integrity that will 
be manifefted in all their actions. 

30. For thofe little offences or cafual overfights 
which the regenerate may at times commit, they 
have a heavenly interceflor conftantly fitting at the 
right hand of God j an interceflor who has felt, and 
who can companionate the wayward thoughts and 
the unliable refolutions of humanity; and for whofe 
fake the Father of Spirits will not be fevere to mark 
the imperfections of the humble, or the frailties of 
the juft. 

31. In the gofpel of Chrifl finlefs perfection is 
not expected of us ; but we are defired to endeavour 
to be per/eft; and the more we endeavour to attain 
perfection, the higher we fhall rife above our prefent 
(late of imperfection. Abfolute and unqualified per- 
fection belongs to God alone, and every created being 
mufl be comparatively imperfect. But it is the duty 
and the intereft of all created beings, endued with 
intelligence, to drive to make continual advances in 
moral excellence. For this purpofe man is endued 
with improveable faculties, and both his heart and 
his mind are fufceptible of amelioration. Chrifti- 
anity not only calls on us to labour to be perfect, as 



( m ) 

oUr Father which is in heaven is perfect, but, in- 
order to aftift our endeavours, and to animate our 
hopes, it has placed before us, in the life and cha- 
racter of Chrift, a pattern of practical goodnefs, a 
goodnefs that cannot be exceeded by any, but which 
ought to be imitated by all. His example ihould 
be the ftandard of our conduct ; and the more we 
put on his likeneis, the nearer we fhall approach to 
divine perfection j for, in him, the goodnefs and the 
perfections of God were incorporated in the human 
form. 

32. The more our difpofition and habits, the 
benevolence of our affections, and the fpirit of our 
minds, are conformed to the likenefs of Chrift, the 
more will the image of God be imprefTed upon our 
hearts. In the character of Chrift there was no- 
thing vicious, nothing imperfect. It is, indeed, not 
poflible for the moft upright among men ever to 
attain the degree of his righteoufnefs. In thofe 
perfons, in whofe habits the power of holinefs feems 
to prefide, there will dill adhere much imperfection. 
Though the general tenor of their lives may be pure 
and finlefs, though juftice and charity may be the 
ruling principles of their conduct, yet many ftains 
of corruption and depravity will fully the beauty of 
their character. But though the moft perfect among 
the fons of men will retain fome blots of imperfec- 
tion, we ought not to contend with the lefs zeal to 
grow better and better every day of our lives. In 



( m ) 

the great work of acquiring habits of goodnefs we 
fhould never (land frill, but endeavour to advance 
from one degree of perfection to a higher. 

33. The life of the Chriftian mould manifeft a 
great and unwearied, a continually increafed and in- 
creafing activity in doing good. This is to grow in 
grace ; it is to increafe in favour with God, whofe 
love and fpiritual affiftance will always he fro-portioned 
to our labours after real gocdnefs. One portion of 
grace rightly employed will produce another ; and 
the quantity beftowed will be increafed in proportion 
as it is ufed. 

34 Men are always very fedulous and eager in 
improving their temporal condition 5 and happy 
would it be for them, if they were but as earned, as 
vigilant, as indefatigable in their endeavours to im- 
prove their moral condition, and to grow in ftrength 
and conftancy of obedience to the will of God. 
Their temporal defires are vafl and rapacious, but 
their fpiritual ones are eafily fatisfied. They think 
that they can never accumulate too many of the 
gifts of fortune, but they feel no warm defire to 
attain the perfect ftature of the goodnefs of Chrifh 

35. We are too apt to meafure our own worth 
by the ftandard of our neighbours' imperfection. 
If we fee many others more vicious or lefs uprigKt 
than ourfelves, we rejoice in the fuperiority. Our 



( 174 ) 

felf-love makes us imagine ourfelves as good as wc 
need to be$ and the illufion caufes us to relax our 
endeavours to become better. The uncharitable 
companions, or the fallacious calculations of our 
own worth by the worthlefTnefs of our fellow-crea- 
tures, always leffen the frequency, or palfy the vigour 
of perfonal exertion. 

3 J. Thinking ourfelves fafe, we take no precau- 
tions againft danger. But Chriftians, inftead of 
appreciating their excellencies by the defects of 
others, ought to meafure themfelves by no other 
ftandard than that of the righteoufnefs of Chrift, 
When we adopt this ftandard of comparifon, and 
this criterion of excellence, we (hall find more oc- 
cafion for humility than for arrogance, for zeal than 
indifference, for diligence than inaction. If we con- 
traft our virtues with thofe of Chrift, we fhall per- 
ceive the former ta be light as air upon the balance. 
By frequendy inftituting this comparifon, and by 
examining how far our lives and conduct tally with 
his precepts, or accord with his example, we (hall 
be able to afcertain the degree of our obedience, 
the extent of our tranfgreflion, and the meafure of 
our danger; and at the fame time, a fenfe of infe- 
riority will be felt on our minds, that will forcibly 
impel our exertions, and accelerate pur progrefe in 
righteoufnefs. 

36. The Chriftian life is reprefented as a warfare 



( 175 ) 

and a race; expreffions which ftrongly enforce this 
conclusion, that there is a necefiicy on our parts for 
the mod ftrenuous activity, for courage and con- 
ftancy, for the glow of zeal and the third of excel- 
lence, for vigilance on the one hand, and forperfe- 
verance on the other. We are never to remit our 
exertions, but are continually to endeavour to ex- 
ceed in thofe genuine virtues which the gofpel re- 
quires as the conditions of falvation, and on which 
alone will be bellowed an incorruptible crown of 
glory. 

37. But the Fanatics imagine that a very fmall 
mare of moral purity will fufnce for their falvation. 
Alas ! little do they know, that God requires purity 
in the inward parts -, and little do they think that 
without real holincfs no man fhall fee the Lord ! 
He who has long lived in habits of fin, does not 
become righteous by an inftantaneous converfion. 
The power of fin is not conquered by one fiidden 
blow. Great preparation of the heart is neceffary 
before it can be fit to enter into heaven. This life 
is a way intermediate to a better; but if we perfilt 
in tranfgreffion, we make it only a pafTage to a 
worfe. Inftead of leading to glory and happinefs, it 
conducts the impenitent to deftrudlion and mifery. 

38. When habits of depravity have taken root 
in our affections, they cannot be removed without 
a long and painful ftraggle againfl their dominion. 



( "76 ) 

As they are formed by degrees, they can only be 
relinquished by degrees. Sin is an obftinate enemy, 
mighty in ftrength, and fertile in ftratagcm. And 
in order to fubdue his power, and fhake off his do- 
minion, we muft not only exert our utmoft natural 
energies, but muft: ufe thofe means which are ap- 
pointed in the gofpel, in order to obtain help from 
above. For this purpofe we muft gird on the whole 
armour of God, taking the bread- plate of faith and 
love, and for an helmet the hope of falvation. Dif- 
trufting our own refolutions, we fhould earneftly 
implore counfel from the Wife, and fuccour from 
the Mighty. 

• 

39. By continually ftruggling againft the arbitrary 
fway of fin, and habitually fupplicating the Father 
of all goodnefs for affiftance, the penitent will, by 
degrees, be eftablifhed in the good work which he 
has undertaken. He will be renewed day by day in 
his mind and affections. The lefs corrupt and im- 
perfect he becomes, the more he will ftrive after 
incorruption and perfection. He will not remain 
ftationary at any point of obedience which he may 
attain, but will confider one degree of holinefs only 
as a ftep to another ; and the nearer he approaches 
the termination of his days, the more meet he will 
become for the communion of the juft. 

40. When we perceive the luft of fin becoming 
lefs unruly and irrefiftible, when we find corruption 

7 



( i77 ) 

vanifhing from our hearts, and purity, and modefty, 
and delicacy, gaining the afcendant in our thoughts, 
and benevolence lighting its hallowed flame in the 
affections, it is a certain and undeniable proof that 
our repentance is becoming effectual; that it is 
taking root in the mind, and bearing fruit in the 
foul. Let no man deceive himfelf, or attempt to 
deceive others by vain words : let nim not imagine 
himfelf a new creature, or fit for heaven, while any 
one fin reigns in his member s> en/laving his reafon and 
his conscience. Let every one who wifhes foberly to 
calculate the chances of his fafety, or to know the 
imminence of his danger, diligently compare his 
conduct by thofe rules of life which were enforced 
by the holy Jefus. If his actions are modelled by 
this ftandard, or if, after making all fair allowances for 
human imperfection, they are found diametrically 
oppofite to the fpirit and precepts of the gofpel, if 
he find himfelf under the yoke of any one habitual 
tranfgreffion, let him confider that his danger is 
great, and his ficknefs unto death. 

41. Let no man think to fave his foul by merely 
fkinning over the wounds of confciencej let him 
rather probe them to the bottom, and be fatisfied 
with nothing fhort of a perfect cure. The majority 
of people leave the work of their repentance half 
finifhed. Some apprehenfion of their danger makes 
them anxious to amend their lives, but felf-love 
blinds them to the excefs of theix* iniquity, They 

N 



( i 7 8 ) 

flatter themfelves that they are not fo bad as they 
really are; and they omit the proper meafures to 
obtain a radical recovery. They, perhaps, perform 
fome few acts of obedience to the divine will, but 
they violate it in more. They refrain from fome 
individual or occafional fins, but they do not forfake 
the habit of finning. And thus they remain fuf- 
pended in a fort of middle date between impeni- 
tency and repentance ; but, in the end, they become 
the fervants of fin, and the children of the devil. 

42. If we wifh in earned to fubdue the power of 
fin, we muft not enter into any truce or compromife 
with fo formidable an adverfary. We muft not con- 
clude, as it were, a treaty of partition with him, or 
think that there can be any fort of faving coalition 
between iniquity and righteoufnefs •, for God admits 
no half fervice •, he requires us to worfhip him with 
all our ftrength, all our heart, and all our foul. 
We cannot ferve God and the devil. If we cleave 
to the flrft, we muft abhor the laft. The fervant of 
Satan muft be truly changed in his difpofition, and 
thoroughly cleanfed in his affections, before God 
will receive him into favour ; or bind his brow with 
the crown that is referved for the righteous. 

43. Let me then finally conjure the readers of 
thefe pages, not to be deceived by that cant of re- 
ligion which the fanatic, the fuperftitious, and the 
hypocrite, are endeavouring to difleminate among 



C 179 ) 

mankind Let me conjure them not to be led far 
and wide away from the light of truth to the dark- 
nefs of error, from the path of fafety to the brink 
of perdition, by that popular but fenfelefs jargon, 
which is brawled abroad loud as the wind, and hi- 
deous as the dorm. Believe not, O Chriftian ! that 
thou corned into the world with a heart indifpofed 
to good, and difpofed to evil, full of corruption and 
iniquity j but rather know that thou art born inno- 
cent and upright, and that it is only by perfonal acts 
of fin, hardening into habits of fin, that thou be- 
comeft a tranfgreiTor, fubject to the wrath of God, 
and, without repentance, liable to damnation. Re- 
member, that, like the firft parent of the human 
race, thou art placed here in a date of trial 5 and that 
thou wilt be happy or miferable after death, in pro- 
portion to the habits of goodnefs or depravity which 
thou acquired in this mortal life. When thy heart 
and affections are edranged from the love of God, 
and when habits of unrighteoufnefs are incorporated 
in thy fleih, when fin becomes, as it were, a law in 
thy members, fo that thy reafon is fubjugated by its 
influence, and thy fenfe of right has become too 
impotent to prevent the practice of wrong; then 
let me befeech thee to remember, that nothing but 
true and unfeigned repentance can fave thy foul; 
and that no repentance can be fincere or faving, that 
does not purify the mind and affections, that does 
not convince the mind of the neceflky of obedience 
to the divine will, and intered the affections in its 
practice. 

N 2 



( *8o ) 

44. Religion, pure and undefiled, not fpoiled by 
the wicked, nor perplexed by the fubtle, confifts in 
loving God with all our mind and all our foul ; and 
our neighbour as ourfelves. In whatever place, 
and among whatever people, whether in London or 
in Rome, in Paris or Jerufalem, this doctrine is 
preached, there pure Chriftianity is taught -, but 
wherever any notions are maintained contrary to it, 
or fubverfive of it, there the religion of Jefus is 
corrupted, there its defign is perverted, its precepts 
are reviled, and its fpirit is unknown *. 



* Inftruclions, like thofe which I have here delivered, how- 
ever adverfe they may be to the reigning tafte, and to that 
fpirit of delufion which feems to have feized the religious 
world, appear to me neceffary at all times, in order to abalh 
the prefumption of the wicked, and to increafe the virtue of 
the juft; but they feem more efpecially neceffary at this dif- 
aftrous period, when deceivers, who turn the truth of God 
into a lie, and make religion an inftrument of mifchief, and an 
engine of corruption, are roaming among us, feeking whom 
they may devour, polluting the principles of the young, and 
troubling the happinefs of the old. Like the fenfelefs Phari- 
fees of old, whofe hypocrify our Saviour fo warmly rebuked, 
and againft whofe accumulated immoralities he denounced 
fuch heavy judgments j they make a great parade about the 
mere forms and externals of religion, while they neglect its 
weightier obligations; and vainly think to atone by the excefs 
of their fuperftition, and the fplendour of their hypocrify, for 
the habitual contempt of truth, of juftice, and of mercy. 



RELIGION WITHOUT CANT. 



The dottrine of Grace, Jcripural, rational, and 

praclical. 



i . JL h e doctrine of grace has been abufed by the 
wicked, perplexed by the fubtle, and miftaken by 
the credulous. Some have employed it as an en- 
gine of mifchief j and others have made it minifter 
to the propagation of folly. I (hall therefore, per- 
haps, be not wholly undeferving the gratitude of 
the reafonable part of the Chriftian Church, if I 
endeavour to refcue this wholefome doctrine from 
the delufions of vifionaries, and the artifices of in> 
poftors. 

a. Mod of the promifes of grace which occur 
in the fcriptures, are reft rained to the apoftolical 
age. At prefent, the operations of the Spirit, of 
whatever nature they may be, are certainly carried 
on in fecret. They are neither vifible to the eye, 
nor palpable to the touch ; and they neither fuper- 

N 3 



( >8* ) 

fede the exercife of the rational faculty, nor controul 
the freedom of the will. 

3. The firft Chriftians could afford demonftrative 
proof of their pofleflion of fpiritual gifts by working 
miracles, by the powers of prophecy, by different 
kinds of languages, by the interpretation of lan- 
guages. See 1 Cor. xii 8 — :o. Such powers are 
evidently no longer beftowed, however confidently 
the fanatics may lay claim to the pofTeflion ; and de- 
ceive the credulous by the boldnefs of their pre- 
tenfions. 

4. The following expreffions in St. Luke, though 
more peculiarly applicable to the Chriftians of the 
apoftolic age, have, probably, a relation to the faith- 
ful in all future ages. " I fay unto you, afk, and it 
fhall be given you ; feek, and ye (hall find ; knock, 
and it fhall be opened unto you. For every one 
that afketh, receiveth; and he that feeketh, findethj 
and to him that knocketh, it fhall be opened. Now 
if a fon fhall afk bread of any of you that is a father, 
will he give him a fione ? or if he fhall afk a fifh, 
will he for a fifh give him a ferpent? or if he fhall afk 
an egg, will he give him a fcorpion ? If ye, therefore, 
being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your 
children j how much more fhall your heavenly father 
give the holy Spirit to them that afk him?'* Lukexi f 

9—13- 



( i«3 ) 

5. Thefe words fhew the outward means by 
which the grace or favour of God is to be obtained, 
and which is reprefented as confequent on prayer and 
ftrenuous exertion on the part of man. cc AJk, and 
it /hall be given you ; Jeek, and ye Jh all find - y knock, and 
it Jh all be opened unto you. " In the natural courfe of 
things, man is condemned to labour; he is to earn 
his bread by the fweat of his brow; but the world 
is furnifhed with various powers and influences to 
invigorate his induftry, and aflift his toils. 

6. There are various powers in nature which 
man, by the active force of his body or his mind, 
may in fome meafure controul, and render iub- 
fervient to the purpofes of life. The earth is full 
of vegetable juices, but labour is required to elicit 
their beneficial properties, and to make them fub- 
fervient to the fuftenance of man. When man has 
carefully tilled and fown the earth, he can do no 
more; then other powers, the fun, the air, the dew, 
the rain, the meteor, and the ftorm, all acting under 
the wife controul of a providential hand, combine 
their varied influences to fuccour the varied opera- 
tions of human art and human toil. In the moral 
world, it is highly probable, that many fecondary 
influences are made to contribute, under the fuper- 
intending agency of the moral governor of the 
world, to the moral welfare of man ; and that his 
moral endeavours are the conditions of obtaining 
their afliftance. 

N 4 " 



( i8+ ) 

7. The fpirit of God is univerfal. We live and 
move and have our being, in the unfeen but infinite 
orbit of its power •, and it is probable that its favour- 
able influence on every fentient and intelligent indi- 
vidual bears a certain fixed relation to the right ufe 
which he makes of thofe faculties that are given him 
to profit withal, to the fincerity of his devotion, 
the fervour of his charity, and the zeal of his obe- 
dience. 

8. If man will exert his natural ftrength, God 
will fuccour his natural infirmities by ftrength from 
above. If man will exert his moral powers, God 
will further the growth of moral goodnefs in his 
foul. In proportion as we labour to become fit for 
heaven, God will work the fitnefs within us. Reafon 
leads us to this conclufion, and revelation fanctions 
it j revelation teaches us that if we wifh to reap fpi- 
ritual things, we muft fow fpirituai ; that if we are 
fincerely zealous to improve in righteoufnefs, we 
muft firft make a juft ufe of our reafon and our 
confciencej and that then God will favour our pro- 
grefs, and invigorate our exertions. 

9. When grace, or the favour of God, is fhed 
upon us, we are not to confider it as an apology for 
idlenefs, but an incentive to exertion. The more 
our power of doing good increafes, the more we are 
fenfible that the word of God is taking root in our 
fouls, the more we Jhould endeavour, and with the 



( «8 5 ) . 

greater fuccefs, we may endeavour to fulfil all righteouf~ 
nefs* This is to ufe the manifeftation of the fpirit to 
profit withal, to walk in the fpirit, to be worthy of the 
vocation whereto we are called, and to prove that 
we are the workman/hip of God, created in Chrift Jefus 
unto good works* 

jo. Let us not imagine that grace, in the fenfe 
in which I have explained it, is an imaginary thing, 
becaufe its fpecific agency is not the object of any 
of our fenfes. We know that there are many 
powers whoje mode of agency is infcrutable, but whofe 
benefits are felt, and whofe effects are feen. In the 
natural world, heat, light, electricity, and, perhaps, 
many other powers, whofe precife nature we do 
not underftand, and whofe fpecific agency we can- 
not difcover, have a very fenfible influence on the 
frame of man, and the fruits of the earth. In the 
moral world, it is probable, that there are various 
influences employed, peculiarly fitted to act on the 
moral powers of men, and to give them ftrength in 
proportion as they are fitted to receive it. The moral 
government of God, in fome meafure, fuppofes the 
exertions of fuch influence, for if God be a moral 
governor, he muft prefer the righteous to the linner, 
and is it not highly probable, that he has arranged 
the moral order of things to favour moral, as he has 
arranged the natural order of things to favour phy- 
fical induftry ? 



( i86 ) 

ii. The laws which regulate the moral world, 
are probably, as regular and uniform as thofe whicli 
regulate the natural. In the natural world, effects 
follow their caufes in a chain of connexion that is 
not, except for moral purposes *, permitted to be 
broken. In the moral world, the connexion be- 
tween caufe and effect is probably as clofe and in- 
diffoluble. In the natural world, certain beneficial 
effects are the confequence of certain actions; in 
the moral world, good or evil feem to follow in a 
determinate courfe, according to the previous con- 
duct of the individual. 

112. The labours of piety, and the exercifes of 
devotion, do not change the general courfe of moral 
laws, any more than induftry alters the uniform 
courfe of the laws of nature. But if, in the moral 
order of things, mifery be affociated with vice, and 
happinefs with virtue, he who avoids the firft, ne- 
ceffarily attains the laft ; as the induftrious derive 
benefit from the laws of the natural world, of which 
they would have been deprived, if they had perfe- 
vered in idlenefs. Thus it may be underftood how 
devotion and prayer, by exciting us to conform our 
conduct to that moral order of things, according to 
which, the difpenfations of good and evil are regu- 
lated, operate on our improvement in righteoufnefs 
and in happinefs. That portion of divine favour 
which prayer produces, is not miraculous or fuper- 

* As In the cafe of the Chrifiian miracles. 



( i»7 ) 

natural, the one is afTociated with the other in the 
moral order of things, as the fruitfulnefs of a field is 
generally proportioned to the cultivation bellowed 
upon it, 

i f. Demotion, when pure, fervent, and fincere, 
naturally produces grateful feelings, and imprefles a 
ftrong fenfe of duty upon the confcience. But though 
devotion excite the mod agreeable fenfations, thefe 
Jen fat ions ought not to be efteemed fupernaiu^al calls, or 
miraculous experiences-, for they proceed from natural 
caufes, and are generated by the moral organization 
of man, as agreeable fenfations, arifing from nervous 
excitement, are connected with, and flow from, his 
phyfical conftitution. 

14. Prayer is a help to holinefss and when fer- 
vent and fmcere, procures a refrefhing fupply of 
thofe wholefome moral energies, thofe fpiritual gifts, 
which, by whatever name they may be exprefled, 
are certainly ultimately derived from the Father of 
fpirits ; not by any immediate and miraculous inter pofi- 
tion of his power, but through the channel of that moral 
order of things, which he eftablijhed, and the moral 
conftitution of man, which he ordained, 

15. If men are negligent in their worldly con- 
cerns, they do not profper ; and the neglect of their 
moral welfare is attended with fimilar effects. The 

firft produces poverty, the laft vicej and, by the 
6 



( >88 ) 

conititution of the natural and the moral world, both 
are alTociated with mifery and ruin. 

1 6. Secondary means are necefTary in the natural 
world, in order to derive advantage from the ge- 
neral courfe of the laws of nature ; and fecondary 
means are alfo neceifary in the moral world, in order 
to profit by the moral economy of the univerfe. 
Prayer is among the principal of thofe means which 
we are to employ for this purpofe. " AJk> and ye 
Jhall receive " Prayer affifts the right culture of the 
affections ; it is a mean of fixing the love of God in 
our fouls, of invigorating the moral principle within 
us, and of arming it againft the deftructive influence 
of temptation. Prayer cheers the heart when it is 
fad, foftens it when it is hard, and purifies it when 
it is unclean. It fits it for the reception of grace, 
and makes it a temple meet for the Father of fpirits 
to inhabit. 

17. It is not the mere act or ceremony of devo- 
tion, which caufes grace to be fhed on the foul, but 
it is that devotion, which, by habitual exercifes, in- 
creafes our love of God, our truft in his providence, 
and our fenfe of his goodnefs, which makes us ob- 
jects of his favour; which brings us, as it were, nearer 
to his regard; and places us in different relations to 
bim y than we could other wife have ken. It is y there- 
fore, prayer generating mora! improvement , which caufes 



( »89 ) 

God to give us the good things which we afk> becaufe 
we afk them according to his will. 

1 8. If thefe notions of grace be true, and they 
have the fanction of reafon and the warrant of fcrip- 
turej then thofe of the vifionaries and fanatics of the 
prefent day, muft be falfe. They reprefent grace 
as a mere matter of fenfation, they aflert that fenfa- 
tion is the centre of its agency, that it is independent 
on the will, and that the affections are the utmofl 
boundaries of its influence. They do not confider 
grace as an energy to be procured by moral means, 
and to be applied to moral ends. Hence they think 
a Hate of grace compatible with a flate of fin *; for 
they confider it not as a blefling given to good en- 
deavours, vaccording to any fixed laws of the moral 
governor of the world, but as fome impulfe, inde- 
pendent on any moral endeavours to acquire it, or 
any moral fitnefs to receive it. Their grace is often 
vouchfafed to the vileft of mankind, to thofe who 
are hardened in long habits of unrighteoufnefs, and 
from whofe confcience the very fenfe of moral ob- 
ligation feems to have vanifhed for want of being 
exercifed. With them, grace is not the confequent 
of devotion and alms, but is diftributed with a ca- 
pricious and partial hand, often withheld from the 



* Treading in the fteps of Calvin, they maintain that the 
favour of God is not loft by the pollutions of the confcience; 
non auferre Jlatum gratice adziUerta et homicidia. 



( *9° ) 

contrite, and often lavifhly accorded to the hypo- 



crite. 



19. If grace be, acceding to their fyftem, a free 
gift, independent on the exercife of the moral powefSj 
and, in the attainment or which, no previous exertion 
is required, and no preparation neceflary, then ic 
is an unconditional grant \ and in this cafe, why did 
our Lord teach us the means by which it might be 
obtained, and enjoin us to put them in practice ? 
For, it God beftow the influence of divine grace on 
man without any regard to his moral fitnefs, if he 
require the performance of no conditions previous to 
its infufion, then men cannot juftly be blamed for not 
endeavouring to obtain it, nor juftly be condemned for 
not poffeffing it. But, if grace be a bleffing on the 
earned and vigilant exertions of man to conform his 
conduct: to the will of God, if it be accorded to the 
fervor of his prayers, and the liberality of his alms, 
then it is, like other blefllngs in the natural world, 
dependant on caufes which it is our own fault if 
we do not put in motion. In this caje> grace operates 
by general laws, and Chriftians are juftly accountable 
for not performing the conditions to which it L> 
appended. 

20. Grace is one of the glorious privileges which 
belong to that covenant into which we gain ad- 
mifTion by baptifm and by faith. God (hows man 
the means by which he may acquire fo ineftimablc 



( i9i ) 

a blefling; and, therefore, the perverfenefs of man, 
rather than the goodnefs of God, mud be accufed, 
if the former neglect the right application of his 
faculties. If any man, faid our Lord, love me, he will 
keep my words, and my father will love him, and we 
will come unto him, and make our abode with him, John 
xiv. 23. But the fanatics, in their doctrine of grace, 
entirely neglect the previous moral endeavour and 
the confequent moral fitnefs ; and, by omitting thefe 
important confiderations, their ideas on the fubject 
are dark, myfterious, and deftructive. Inftead of 
promoting goodnefs, they encourage fin; they make 
the tranfgrefTor rejoice and the righteous defpair. 

21. As the fanatics do not confider grace as the 
confequent on moral qualities, fo they do not regard 
the pofleffion as productive of them. With them, 
grace is rather a glowing temperature of the feel- 
ings, than an active (late of the rational and moral 
powers; rather agitating the paffions within, than 
vifibly improving the conduct without. As they 
confine its agency within the volatile gas of the fen- 
fations, the tokens of its prefence vary with the phy- 
fical temperament of the individual. 

0.2. When moral qualities are regarded as a teft 
of grace, it cannot be miftaken ; but if the warmth 
or ecftafies of fenfation are made the figns of its 
poffefiion, we are foon loft in the delufions of pride, 
or perplexed by the tricks of impofture. We fet 



( *9 2 ) 

the imagination to work, and that myfterious faculty, 
when operated on by fo powerful a ftimulus as that 
of religious intereft on one fide, and fpiritual ambi- 
tion on the other, produces the mod furprifing 
effects upon the feelings. When the fancy, per- 
turbed with this delirium, caufes any violent tranf- 
port or tumult in the bread, the fanatics call it an 
experience of grace. But fuch feelings, uniefs as far 
as their fruits are manifefted in the integrity of the 
conduct, and in the purity and kindnefs of the heart, 
favour more of madnefs than of reafon ; of fuperili- 
ticn, than of piety. 

23. The power of fpiritual pride is well known, 
and its delufions are very common. The inward 
feelings of the fanatics are, for the moft part, either 
the refult of an overweening pride, or an irregular 
imagination, often operating in conjunction and often 
by themfelves. And as they refer the evidence of 
grace to the invifible tribunal of their own fenfations, 
the pofTefiion may be readily counterfeited; and the 
ignorant, whofe credulity makes them eafy to be 
duped, do not as readily difcover the deception. 

24. Grace, of whatever nature it may be, is an 
invifible power -, but the exiftence of an invifible power 
can be afcertained only by its vifible effects. No 
man in his fober fenfes, or who pretended to reafon, 
would make the invifibility of the wind the criterion 
of its exiftence -, or aflfert that it is, only becaufe it 



( *93 ) 

is not feen. He would rather refer to its vifible 
effects; he would fhow its agency in the heavens 
above, and on the earth beneath ; in the motion of 
the clouds, and the agitation of the waters. But 
the fanatics, who defpife every thing like plain com- 
mon fenfe and fober reafoning, who think abfurdity 
the teft of truth, and darknefs the proof of light, 
pretend to demonftrate the exiftence of grace, not 
by its outward properties, but by its Jecret and un- 
known operations. They make their feelings the 
centre and fource, the beginning and the end of its 
agency. And thefe feelings, for aught any one 
knows, may be fpurious or genuine, real or coun- 
terfeit. 

25. Grace, being an invifible power, can be known 
only by its vifible effects. Our Lord Jefus, who, 
no impoflor himfelf, was an enemy to all impofture 
in others, never authorized us to conclude that our 
inward feelings were any proof whatever of the prin- 
ciple of righteoufnefs abiding in us. He told us to 
judge of the qualities of the tree by its fruits; and 
I know of no other way in which the reality of 
grace can be afcertained j or any other fign, which 
Qznfafely be trufted as the criterion of its poffefiion. 

26. That grace does never operate on the fenfa- 
tions as a vehicle of its agency or a medium of its 
power, cannot be precifely determined ; but whether 
it do or do not thus operate, the former hypothefis 

O 



( i?4 ) 

is only a harmlefs theory in theology, as long as we 
agree that thofe fenfations are not that ttftimony of its 
exigence in which we can rationally confide. What 
then are we to ccnfider as the evidences of grace ? 
Certainly the only credible evidences are the pofTefTion 
of thofe moral qualities, whofe effects are palpable, 
whole character is fixed, and whofe impreffions arc 
lafting. 

27. A good tree bringeth forth good fruit ; but 
a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. Grace can 
be known only by the fruit which it produces; and 
what the fruits of the fpirit are, St. Paul has dis- 
tinctly told us. They are " love, joy, peace, long- 
fuffering, gentlenefs, goodnefs, faithfulnefs, meek- 
nefs, temperance.'' Galat. v. 22, 23. Thefe word? 
certainly characterife the ordinary influence ofthejvirh> 
Juch as is probably Jhed on fin cere Chrijlians in all ages; 
and as oppofed to thofe miraculous operations of the 
fpirit, which are detailed 1 Cor. xii. 4 — 11. and 
they well deferve our attentive confideration. They 
intimate that a pleafurable ftate of the affections, 
that kindnefs and finglenefs of heart, with juflice and 
beneficence, are indications that grace is prefent and 
operative in the foul. A pleafurable ftate of the 
affections is included in the words (< love, joy, peace, 
weeknefs, gentlenc/s" a ftate cf mind very adverfe to 
the uneafy terrors and chilling apprehenfions of the 
fuperftitious, to the lowering brow of the fanatic, 
to the impetuofity of the turbulent, and the rancour 



( *9S ) 

of the malevolent. In " goodnefs, faithfulnefs, tem- 
perance" we behold the energies of the fpirit brought 
into action, contributing to the well-being and the 
happinefs of mankind. They increafe all the inno- 
cent enjoyments of the individual, by keeping his 
fenfations, his temper, and his pafiions, in a due and 
reafonable fubjection ; and difpofing them to the 
production of particular and of general good. They 
infufe life and activity into the benevolent affections, 
and keep our moral powers alert and vigorous for 
the practice of juflice towards others, and of tem- 
perance in the government of ourfelves. 

28. Such are the characteriftic marks of the ope- 
rations of the Holy Spirit, as they are defcribed by 
St. Paul; and if thefe marks be genuine, thofe of 
the fanatics mud be counterfeit. The teftimony of 
grace, to which the fanatics moil confidently appeal, 
and the proofs on which they mod implicitly rely, 
are, turbulence and fervour of fenfation, a wildnefs 
of the imagination bordering on delirium, and of the 
pafiions approaching to frenzy; while the benevolent 
fympathies are extinguished by bigotry, or benumbed 
in apathy ; and the moral powers, without animation 
or ftrength, are imbruted in corruption. 

29. It may not be improper here to contraft the 
tokens of grace which are enumerated by the apof- 
tle, Gal. v. 22, 23, with thofe which are difplayed 
by the fanatics. For love they fubftitute a frozen 

O 2 



C 196 ) 

apathy, or favage hate ; for joy, a weeping counte- 
nance *; for peace, fcdition and ftrife ; for long-iuf- 



* St. Paul fays very emphatically, " Rejoice evermore." 
TheiV. v. 16. M Rejoice in the lord always, and again I fay 

rejoice." Phil. iv. 4. A relilh for innocent checrfulntis and 
a difpofnion to harmlefi mirth are no uncertain indications 
that the benevolent principle is prefent and active in the heart ; 
but a fullen dejection of the fpirits* and a cold averfion to 
focial joy, are very credible tokens that the malevolent prin- 
ciple has erected its ftandard in the bread: and that the affec- 
tions are imbtsed with its noxious influence. The fanatic.-, 
and particularly thole who belong to the feet of the metho- 
difts, forget the injunction of our Lord, " not to be of a fad 
countenance" nor to disfigure their faces; which they do by 
twifting them into all pofiible contortions of woe of which the 
mufcles are fufceptible. And like the heathen, they think to 
be heard for their much [peaking ; they feem to imagine that 
they can never tell God enough j and, as if he were a corporeal 
idol, and a little inclined to deafnefs, they feldom fail to brawl 
out their petitions on the higher! pofiible key. Their devotion 
is one continued monotonous diapafon. Religion, pure and 
undented, is a cheerful fervice, and nothing is Co well fitted to 
produce cheerfulnefs. It fpreads an artlefs fmile of compla- 
cency upon the countenance ; and it caufes fweet vibrations of 
joy in the heart. It naturally generates that peace with God 
which pali'eth all underitanding ; which is a fourcc of the moft 
refined and rational delight ; which banilhes impatience, bit- 
ternefs, diftruftj and every emotion allied to malice and to mi- 
fery; and is a foretalte of that reward which is referved for the 
juft. The dejectipn of the great ma Is of the fanatics prove* 
that they either want the fpirit of true religion, or that they 
are confeious of not deferving the polVeffion. Whoever is ac- 
quainted with the methodiils, mud hive remarked their long 
faces; and perhaps they are not lefs remarkable for their long 



( *97 ) 

fering, a fierce impatience of controul; a whining 
cant about perfecution when they are weak, and a 



graces. As the Pbarifees would not eat without firft warning 
their hands,, fo the methodifts will feldom eat, except in pri- 
vate, without many previous ejaculations of their hypocrisy. 
I once drank tea with two methodift paribus, and an evange- 
lical clergyman, as much a methodift as the other two. Before 
we were permitted to regale on this ealtern luxury, it was firft 
neceftary that a pious oration fhould be made. The perform- 
ance of this ceremony, having been firft humbly declined by 
me, was turned over to the evangelical preacher; who, riling 
from his feat, made no very brief addrefs j and accompanied it 
with fuch a forlorn caft of the eyes, and fuch hideous contor- 
tions of the body, that I could hardly keep my countenance. 
One fimple benediction, coming from the heart, is, in my opi- 
nion, more impreilive, and more acceptable to the Father of 
Spirits, than a grace five minutes in length, with all the de- 
vout accompaniments of methodiftic grimace. The intent of 
grace before meals is, to elevate the heart to God as the giver 
of all good things 3 and, after meals, the fenfe of his goodnefs 
to us lhould make us think of the wants of others. There is, 
in good bifhop Wilfon's works, a grace to be faid after meals, 
as near as I recollect, in the following words. " O God, who 
haft provided for our wants, make us mindful of the wants of 
others, for Jefus Chrift's fake." This grace, though not very 
long, would feem prolix and affected in particular companies j 
for graces muft, infome degree, be timed to perfons and places ; 
but, of this prayer of the apoftolic bifhop, I muft fay, that 
every good man will always feel the fentiroent in his heart, 
though, he may not pronounce it with his lips; for it is the 
immediate, nay, almoft the inftinclive feeling of every grateful 
man, (and no ungrateful man can be a religious man), after 
having tafted the goodnefs of God. But the methodifts, as 
far as I have had an opportunity of obferving them, inftead 

o 3 



( 198 ) 

fanguinary ferocity when they are ftrong*; for gen- 
tlenefs, the mod iupple adulation, veiling the mod 

of endeavouring, in their verbofe fupplications, to flrengthen 
the impreilions of thankfulnefs in the hrft place, and to excite 
the fpirit of beneficence in the fecond, ufually make long 
prayers for what they call fpiritual things, when a good repaft 
of animal food is fet before them. But though they implore 
fpiritual bleflings with as much fanctity as if their bodies wen 
cut out of a cloud, inftead of being carved out of the clay, they 
are not exceeded, even by Homer's heroes, in the carnivorous 
capacity. Every Chriftian may, certainly, without 2ny of- 
fence, eat and drink in moderation j but I abhor that hypo- 
crify, which, while it is inwardly as ravenous as a wolf, out- 
wardly whines, and prays, and talks, as if a man could live on 
air, or as if a focial being were defigned by the Almighty to 
be debarred from all focial pleafures. 

Gentle reader, after having faid Co much on graces, let us 
leave the fubjec~t; left, from the bufy in trillion of fome aftb- 
ciated ideas, thou or I fhould begin to dream of hofpitality 
which we cannot realize ; and perturb our fpirits with the re- 
collection of happier days, which, like the fwift waters, have 
palTed away. 

* Epifcopius remarked the fame difpofition in the fanatics 
of his time; while they were in the minority they were ftre- 
nuous advocates for freedom of worfhip and liberty of con- 
science; they exclaimed againft all reflraint as a breach of cha- 
rity, and an unauthorized ufurpationj but they no lboner be- 
came the majority, than they praclifed an opprellion on others, 
greater than ever had been practifed on themfelves. Profperity 
made them info/en t; the foj/lffion of poivcr intolerant ; and no- 
thing BUT AN UNCONDITIONAL ACQUIESCENCE IN ALL THEIR. 
POGMAS COULD APPEASE THEIR CRUELTY. " Tcmpori (fayS 

Epifcopius) et fecnte fervitis. Hinc varia et difhmilis eft veftra 
oratio. Sub jugo gementes, corporales omnes coercitiones 



C l 99 ) 

malicious guile j for gcodnefs, a bufy defire to do evil; 
for faith », injuftice and deceit; for meeknefs, pride in- 
fatiate lurking beneath the affected extravagance of 
humility ; for temperance, a more than heathen excefs 
in the gratification of their lufts. Such ate fome of 
the diftinguifhing features of factitious as oppofed 
to real, of fanatic as contrafted with apoflolic grace : 
features which are not exactly the fame in every fa- 
natic ; which vary in degree with conftitution and 
circumstances ; but, of which, with a few exceptions 
in favour of individuals, a general likene& will be 
found in the whole fraternity. 

30. The fanatics feem to imagine that grace fu- 
perfedes the ufe of the moral powers of man, of his 
reafon and his confciencej and this miftake caufes 
them to neglect the culture of the one, and to defpife 
the dictates of the other. Grace may indeed, and 
always does invigorate our natural power to do good j 

damnatis ut illicitas ct a Chriftiana caritate prorfus alienas; ubi 
jugo colla veftra fubJuxiflis, per fas ei ntfas, ibi, Ji tempora atque 
ingenla populi non ferunt Janguinaria conjilia, Juppliciorum ei poe- 
narum omnium jugum atiis imponitis , folo fanguine excepto. At 

UBI, PRO VOTO RERUM FOT1MINI ET POPULQRUM RECTORUM- 
ftUE VOLUNTATES AD NUTUM VESTRUM HABETIS, IBI EXTREMA 
OMNIA TENTARE ET SANGUINEM K .qERETICORUM EFfUNDERE 
GLORIOSUM ZELUM DUCITIS 3 PLANE UT ALTERUTRUM NE- 
CESSE SIT FIERI, AUT MARTYRES VOS ESSE AUT FACERE. ReC- 

te Seneca " Multorum, quia imbecilla funt, latent vitia, non 
minus aufura, cum illis vires fuse placuerint." Vid. Epifcop. 
op. torn. ii. Apol. pro Confeff. Remonft. p. 241 . 

Q 4 



( 200 ) 

but it by no means lays fuch a bias on the will as 
prevents us from doing^evil. It ftrengthens the na- 
tural capacity, but without annulling our moral re- 
fponfibility; which it would do if it abolifhed our 
capacity to difobey. It increafes the power to refill 
temptation ; but it does not hinder us from being 
tempted. It kindles a flronger third after holinefs; 
but it does not clofe up every avenue through which 
unrighteoufnefs may (leal into our hearts. In fact, 
grace by no means alters our prefent ftate of trial, 
though it infpires us with fortitude to combat its 
dangers, and minifters confolation to its forrows. It 
accelerates our progrefs in goodnefs and happinefs, 
without fuperfeding the voluntary powers of the 
individual. 

31. That grace, inftead of controuling the will, 
is fubject to its fway, is the undoubted doctrine of 
fcripture. For even the extraordinary gifts of the 
holy Spirit, which were imparted to Chriftians of 
the apoftolic age, were fubject to the will of the 
individual j or St. Paul would not otherwife have 
recommended their fober ufe, or have reprehended 
their vain-glorious, idle, and oftentatious exhibition. 
See 1 Cor. xii. xiv. And indeed our Lord intimates 
that many who had prcphefied*, caft out devils, and 
done mqny wonderful works, would yet be rejected at 



* The fpirit of the prophets are fubject to the prophets. 
1 Cor. xiv. 32. 



( 201 ) 

the loft day> becaufe they had worked iniquity. See 
Matt. vii. 22, 23. Thefe had tailed the heavenly 
gift, but had made an improper ufe of it *. 

32. If the extraordinary gifts of the holy Spirit 
were fubject to the will, and liable to abufe, we can- 
not fuppofe that the ordinary operations are inde- 
pendent of our volition. Grace, therefore, is a 
power vouchfafed to us in order to be improved by 
exercife, and ftrengthened by ufe. To this purpofe, 
St. Paul fays, " the manifeftation of the fpirit is given 
us to profit withal" All our phyfical faculties are 
made capable of improvement, and their improve- 
ment depends on their proper application. The 
various faculties of our bodies and our minds are 
capable of being invigorated by exercife. The ana- 
logies of nature, independent of the exprefs autho- 



* A fimilar remark is made on Matt. vii. 22, 23, by arch- 
bifliop Newcome in his revifed translation of the New Cove- 
nant, printed at Dublin in 2 vols. 8vo. 1796, for J. Johnfon, 
London. I ftrenuoufly recommend the perufal of this excel- 
lent work, by the late learned primate of Armagh. Dr. New- 
come has made many improvements, and corrected many de- 
fects in the old vernon; and he has followed the text of Grief- 
bach. The notes are very fenfible and judicious ; the ignorant 
will rind them inftruetive, and the learned fatisfadkny. Gra- 
titude will not lufFer me to refrain from adding, that I owe 
the poffemon of this work, and many other favours, to the kind- 
nefs of a Nobleman who has few equals among the great, many 
inferiors among the learned, and no fuperior among the good. 



\ 



( £02 ) 

nty of icripture, leads us to conclude that grace is a 
poiTeffion which we may either ufe or abuie; and 
which, if it be not improved, will be withdrawn. 
It is not a candle that is to be hid under a bufhel, or 
a talent that is to be laid up in a napkin. It b to 
be vigoroufly exercifed, and applied to thofe great 
moral ends, to which the Creator led it to be fub- 

fervie:>:t. St. Paul tells the Ephefians " to grieve not 
the holy Spirit" Eph. iv. 30. the Theilalonians u not 
to quench the Spirit ," T hell. v. 19. and he enjoins 
timothy to ftir up the free gift of Gcd" Hence it 
clearly appears that grace is to be ufed ; and that it 
is fubmitted to the government of our reafonablc 
faculties. 

23> If it be afked, how is grace to be ufed P we 
may reply that it is a moral power to be directed to 
moral ends; and that, infxead of difcharging us from 
a fingle moral obligation, it is bellowed that we may 
fulfil thofe obligations with greater facility. It is fhed 
on the foul, that we may make a continual progrefs in 
habits of juftice, of mercy, and of truth. And the 
more we excrcife, or, in the language of fcripture, 
fiir up this divine gift of God> the more will its energy 
be increaied. 



34. One meafure of grace, rightly ufed, will bring 
us another. One temptation combated and van- 
quished, brings flrength to refill a (tronger; till, by 
degrees, the habit is formed, and the fiercell afTaults 

1 



( 203 ) 

of the adverfary are derided. In the parable of the 
talents, which refers to fpiritual as well as natural 
gifts, and for the application of which God will cer- 
tainly hereafter reckon vnth us, it is plainly intimated 
that thofe talents, which, by vigilance and induftry, 
we turn to a good account, will produce other talents ; 
while the neglect of them will occafion our condem- 
nation. To him who hath, to him fhall be given; 
and from him that hath not, (hall be taken away even 
that which he hath. 

35. The fanatics will fay that grace of itfelf, and 
without any co-operation of our will or natural fa- 
culties, enables us to perform our moral duties, and 
to become wife unto falvation. That this is not 
the cafe, we may learn from this, that fome of the 
firft Chriftians, to whom the grace of God was 
vouchfafed in a far fuperior degree than to Chriilians 
of the prefent age, were not free from immorality. 
And the reafon was, that they abujed the talent that 
was given them. The manifeftation of the fpirit was 
given them to profit withal; but they did not profit 
by it ; becauje their moral powers were ?iot exercifed in 
a way conformable to reafon, and agreeable to the will 
of God, Grace was vouchfafed to them in order to 
invigorate their natural capacity to difcern good 
from evil; or their natural power to choofe the one 
in preference to the other ; but, by not duly exerting 
the faculty they pofTefTed, they abufed the divine 
gift which they had received. They fowed to the 



C a©4 ) 

flefh inftead of the fpirit. They neglected the power 
that was in them. They yielded to the lufts which 
they fliould have combated and fubduedj and they 
worked iniquity when they might have praclifed 
godlinefs. 

36. That grace, without the free cooperation of 
thole moral powers by which we difcern good from 
evil, does not enable us to perform our moral obli- 
gations, we may learn from the conftant, uniform, 
and energetic addreffes of St. Paul, to thole whom, 
though they pofTeffed the extraordinary gifts of the 
ipirit, he did not ceafe to exhort to do the will of 
God. He urges them to put azvay lying* not to 
give place to the devil; to let no corrupt communication 
proceed out of their mouths ; to put away all bitternefs> 
wrath, and anger, and clamour } and evil -f peaking, ivitb 
all malice -, to be kind unto one another, tender -hear ted: 
all which exhortations would have been vain and 
fuperfluous, and indeed a reflection on God, if the 
gifts of his holy Spiiit were as independent on the 
will, as the fanatics, and particularly thofe among 
them who pafs under the name of Calviniils, main- 
tain, and have long maintained. For, in this cafe, 
thofe who pofTciTcd thefe gifts would have performed 
thefe obligations, as if by a mechanical necefiity, 
without any injunction from the apotile. But that 
the grace which was fhed abroad even in this age 
did not operate by necelTity, or work its effects by 
the fubjugation of the will, is fully proved by his 



C 205 ) 

earned intreatirs to the Chriftians then living, not 

to quench the fpirit which they had received, but 

to ufe it to profit withal ; and by the examples of 

thofe, who, inftead of thus ufing it, either hid the 

light, with which they had been favoured, under a 

buihel, or abufed it to their own dtflruclion. Kence 

it is plain, that grace alone is not dcilgned by God 

to deliver us from the power cf temptation, or to 

prevent the intrufion of evil into our fouls; and that 

our will mud co-operate with the grace which is 

given i for if grace operated on the foul in any other 

way, it would take us out of a (late of moral refpon- 

fibility for our conduct. It wculd put an end to 

that (late of trial and probation, in which the fcrip- 

ture univerfally fuppofes us to be placed ; and from 

which, it will be found, that the influence of grace 

does not deliver us. God will judge us according 

to our works ; but if God overruled our actions by 

any principle which we could not refill, he would 

be the author of our actions; and then, how could 

it be affirmed by the apofiie, that, every man JJjall 

bear his own burden; and that, wbatfoeroer a manfow- 

eth> that Jh all he alfo reap. Gal. vi. 5. 7. 

37. But fome will go to fuch lengths of blaf- 
phemy, as to aflert that grace is a fpecial exemption 
from moral obligations. Perverting to the word of 
purpofes, this declaration of the apoftle, that we are 
not under the law, but under grace ; they make the 
ignorant believe, that grace fuperfedes the import- 



( MB ) 

ance, and annuls the neceuity of practical obedience. 
They make grace a cloak for licentioufnefs •, to work 
all iniquity with greedinefs. They do not confider 
that St. Paul is not here fpeaking of the moral law, 
but of the ritual; which grace, or the gofpel, which 
is the grace of God, abolifhed. The moral law ex- 
ifted in the will of God before the foundations of 
the earth were laid ; and it will certainly continue 
till the heavens are rolled up like a fcroil, and the 
elements (hall melt with fervent heat. 

38. Fie who is under grace, that is, whofe life is 
a teftimony to the truth, and whofe conduct is a 
glorious manifeftation of the power of righteoufnefs, 
is fo far not under the moral law, as that he is not 
fubjecl: to its condemnation ; for againfl righteoufnefs 
there is no law ; but he is, and muft for ever be under 
that law, fo far as he is not exempted from its obli- 
gations. For, between being free from the con- 
demnation of the moral law, and being releafed from 
obedience to it, there is a wide difference. A man 
may be free from the penalties of injuftice, but can 
never be privileged from the duties of jufcice; he 
may, by his good life and conduct, not be obnoxious 
to civil punifhment ; but he cannot, therefore, be 
exempted from the prohibition to Heal or to flay. 

39. Thofe who are led by the fpirit are not 
under the law, Gal. v. i3. and why? becaufe they 
walk in the fpirit ; becaufe their faith worketb by love-, 



( soy ) . 

&nd they do not fulfil the lufis of the fiejh. They arc 
not guilty of " adultery, fornication, uncleannefs, 
lafcivioufnefs, idolatry, hatred, variance, emulation, 
wrath, ftrife, feditions, herefies, envyings, murders, 
drunkennefs, revellings, and fuch like ;" which are 
exprefsly excluded from the kingdom of God : but 
they {how forth the fruits of the fpirit, in love, joy, 
peace, long- faltering, gentlenefs, goodnefs, truth, 
meeknefs, temperance, againft which there is no law. 
Thus grace does not exonerate us from fabjection 
to the law, from the terror which it infpires, and the 
penalties it denounces, only fo far as it gives us 
flrength to lead a more holy life, and to do ihoje 
things which no law condemns. 

\ • 

40. But if, inftead of ufing the grace that is given 

us to profit withal, we ufe it only for a cloak of 
licentioufnefs, and not as a help to our progrefs in 
goodnefs, then we fall from grace given; we lapfe 
into fin ; and the law, from whofe rigorous fentence, 
grace, rightly ufed, would have delivered us, feals 
our condemnation. Graceas given us to fow to the 
fpirit; that our hearts may yield the fruits of right* 
eoufnefs and true holinefs, whofe end is everlafting 
life; and to extirpate thefe vicious habits, and that 
moral corruption, whofe confequence will be mifery 
and torment. 

41. The gofpel, as oppofed to the law, is a voice 
of glad tidings ; a covenant of favour : the law, as 



( aoS ) 

oppofed to the gofpel, is 3 fyftem of implacable fe- 
verity; it denounces death on the tranfgrefibr, and 
without any promife of mercy to the penitent. But 
grace comes with healing in its wings; not abolifbing* 
but ejiablijhing the law, while it moderates its rigour 
and mitigates its penalties. Grace does not grant 
an exemption from any of the duties which the law 
requires; but, by helping our infirmities, it gives 
ftrength for their performance ; while, by more 
powerful motives, more awful fanctions, and more 
interefting perfuafions, it infpires zeal to do thoje things 
again ft which there is no law. Under the law we are 
flrictly prohibited from doing evil; but, under grace, 
we are excited to do good; the law ordains juftice; 
grace infpires charity ^ which is the bond of perfedt- 
nefs. ColoiT. iii. 14. The law inculcates duty from 
motives of fear; but grace from thofe of love. 

42. The law is inflexible; it demands unerring 
obedience; but grace is mild and flexible; it calls 
for repentance when we have done amifs; and, 
though it do not demand perfection, yet it will not 
accept imperfection without fmcerity. Under the law 
the finner had no pledge of fecurity in the day of 
vengeance ; but, under grace, we have an advocate 
with the Father, Jefus Chrift the righteous; and he 
is the propitiation for our fins. Thus grace rather 
eftablifhes than annuls the obligations of the law, 
by affording us help to fulfil them ; and by temper- 
ing juftice with mercy when we offend. Under the 



( 20 9 ) 

law, every fin was utter deftruction ; but under grace 
charity " is made" to cover a multitude of fins, i Pet. 
iv. 8. Under the law, the end of the command- 
ment was unvarying obedience ; but under grace, 
the end of the commandment is charity out of a 
pure heart, a good confcience, and faith unfeigned, 
i Tim. L 5. 

43. What then, in the language of St. Paul, mail 
we fin, becaufe we are not under the law, but under 
grace ? God forbid ! This cannot be ; becaufe when 
we are admitted into covenant with God, by baptifm 
and faith, we are fuppofed to be dead unto fin ; and 
how fhall they, who are dead unto fin, live any longer 
therein ? For we cannot, in the fcriptural fenfe of 
the words, be dead unto fin, without becoming the 
fervants of righteoufnefs. 

44. The influence of the holy Spirit, which is 
given to help our infirmities, is defigned to mortify 
the deeds of the body; Rom.viii. 13. Gal. v. 16— 
25. and it is by this means alone, that " the ipirit 
of life in Chrift Jefus makes us free from the law 
of fin and death 5" Rom. viii. 1. for there is cc no 
condemnation to them who walk not after the flefh, 
but after the fpirit." Rom. viii. 1. 

45. The genuine energy of the fpirit, when fhed 
on our hearts, infufed into our affections, and vigo- 
roufly exercifed by the reafon and the confcience, 

P 



( 210 ) 

not only does not fuperfede, but eftablifhes the ne- 
cefiitv of moral ri^hteoufnefs. For St. Paul uni- 
formly fuppofes a Mate of grace to be a {late in which 
the appetites and paflions are kept in a due fubjeclion; 
and in which thofe qualities are acquired, which our 
Lord To uniformly difplayed in his life, and fo ear- 
neflly inculcated in his doctrine. A (late of grace, 
therefore, when grace is rightly applied, mud al- 
ways BE A PROGRESSIVE STATE OF RIGHTEOUSN V SS J 

for the right and wife ufe of one portion of the divine 
favour brings another, and enables us to keep the 
moral law perfected by the fovereign excellence of 
Chriftian charity. 

46. It muft not, indeed, be fuppofed, but that 
thofe who are under grace, will occafionally violate 
the law. The mod righteous will fometimes offend. 
But the tranfgre (lions of thofe, who are really in a 
ftate of grace, — of grace not quenched but flirred 
up, will never be marked by any flagrant violation 
of the greater, or by any habitual deviation from the 
fmaller commandments. In many things they may 
and will offend; on many occafions mortal infirmity 
will be vifible in their conduct. ; but notwithstanding 
their accidental lapfes, the general tenor of their lives 
will prove, that they are, really, dead unto fin, and alive 
unto right eoufnefs. 

47. It is not by fome occafional mifdoings that 
we are to pafs fentence on any man. Habits of 



( 2" ) 

rlghteoufnefs, like habits of fin, are not fo uniform 
as to admit of no tranfient variations. A drunkard 
may be accidentally fober; and a fober man may be 
accidentally drunk. But when we eftimate the 
worth of the human character, we are not to form 
our calculations on the conduct of one (ingle day, 
but are to take the average of many days and years, 
and lee what proportion a man's violation of his 
duty bears to its performance; his virtues to his 
vices ; or his fins to his righteoufnefs. In many 
things we offend all : it is the condition of our im- 
perfect nature, placed in a ftate of arduous trial, and 
conftantly affailed by numberlefs temptations; but a 
few occafional offences, a few venial and tranfient 
errors, will not countervail the merits of a life de- 
voted unto righteoufnefs. 

48. For the occafional mifdoings of the righteous, 
the covenant of grace, lefs ftern and unbending than 
that of the law, offers many means of reparation; 
for, demanding fincere rather than finlefs obedience, 
it promifes forgivenefs to the contrite; and it fets no 
limits to the difpenfations of its mercy. It does not 
fay that pardon can be obtained only feven times; 
it rather fays feventy times feven. Did not the co- 
venant of grace thus overflow with mercy, our hopes 
of falvation would be precarious indeed ; for even of 
thofe who have tafted the heavenly gift, how few 
ever lay down their heads at night without having 
fome little fins of omiflion, if not of commiflion, to 

P % 



( 212 ) 

remember? But thofe, whofe faith is frefti, vivid, 
and active, and on whofe fouls grace has been fhed, 
and not fhed in vain, will no fooner feel a confcioui- 
nefs of having offended, than remorfe, hearty and 
unfeigned, will expiate the offence. And though 
the righteous may fall into fins of infirmity, they 
will efcape the fnare of thofe tranfgrcfiions which 
indicate malignity of difpofition, in which malice 
meditates deliberate revenge, or the conlcience is 
feared againft the obligations of truth, of juftice, 
and of charity. 

49. We are expofed on all fides to fo many 
temptations, that it is lefs to be wondered that the 
righteous fhould fometimes be vanquifhed, than that 
they fhould fo often conquer. The only genuine 
criterion of righteoufnefs is a power to refifr, tempta- 
tion; and the greater and more numerous the tempta- 
tions we refift, the greater the degree of our obe- 
dience. The increafing power of conquering tempta- 
tion, is a token that our fuith is increafing, and that 
we are grczving in grace. 

50. Mod fins fpring from fome temptation af- 
fented to by the will; as moil acts of real righteouf- 
nefs fpring from fome temptation oppofed and over- 
come by the will, aflifted by the favour of God. 
Temptations fugged motives of action oppofite to 
righteoufnefs, and contrary to the will of God ; and 
they place before us motives to do evil, in order to 



( 2IJ ) 

counteract our inclination to do good. As, during 
our (lay on earth, we are continually expofed to 
their influence, our Lord enjoined us continually to 
watch and pray that we enter not into temptation, 

51. As our moral trial is made up of a variety of 
temptations from within and from without, acting on 
our fenfes, our thoughts, and affections, produced by 
the objects around us, or excited by the force of ima- 
gination, it behoves us to be conftantly aware of our 
danger, and to be on our guard againft the enemy. 
It behoves us to beware of our danger, that we may 
not be furprifed ; that a fenfe of duty may be always 
prefent to our confcience ; and that we may have 
grace to help in time of need, 

52. Men are too apt to defpife temptations; and 
confequently, to put themfelves in their way, when 
they ought to get out of it; or to folicit their admif- 
fion when they ought to fecure every avenue of the 
heart againft their entrance. It is thus that they 
fall, by thinking themfelves fafe ; and that they are 
furprifed, by taking no precaution againft their dan- 
ger. We ought conftantly to remember, what we 
too conftantly forget, and what none forget fo much 
as thofe who believe, or pretend to believe in the 
innate corruption of mankind, that we are here in 
a ftate of probation, and on our trial for eternity, 

53. He who had on the morrow to ftand at the 



( 2I 4 ) 

bar of a human tribunal, would not neglect the 
means of his defence, and the proofs of his integrity. 
And while we are living, ready, every moment, to 
be called hence to anAver for the talents committed 
to our trufT, fhall we wafte the time in apathy and 
inaction ? Shall we not guard againft temptation; 
and do thofe things, which, for Chrift's fake, will 
appear pleafing in the fight of God, when he fum- 
mons us to judgment ? 

54. A Mate of life, like ours, in which we are 
made accountable for our actions, mud:, necefia.ily, 
be a (late of tempation ; a flate, in which different 
motives urge us to actions that have very different 
tendencies and effects. Without this conflict of 
motives and of interefts in our hearts, there would 
be no morality in human actions j for without fome 
inclinations to good as well as to evil, and to evil 
as well as to good, we could not be moral agents; 
and it is the right choice between good and evil, 
or the cheriflrng and exercifing the inclination to 
one, and counteracting and refilling that to the 
other, in which the principle of moral rectitude 
refides. 

55. The perfection of moral rectitude confifts in 
fo regulating our pafiions and purfuits in life, as to 
choofe that which is mod fitted to our own indi- 
vidual good, as we are fentient and reafonable be- 
ings; to the good of others, as we are focial beings; 



( its ) 

and to the will of God, as we are religious beings. 
That, therefore, is morality, pure and undeflled, 
which teaches us to connect our own good with the 
good of others, and with the will of God. As we 
are fentient beings, accefllble to the varied influences 
of pleafure and pain, and as the love of life, or the 
principle of fclf-prefervation is clofely incorporated 
in our frame, we cannot help making what we call 
Jelf a part in mod of our confiderations refpe&ing 
the end and tendencies of our conduct. As we are 
focial beings, we pofTefs various fympathies which 
tend to diminim our felf-love, and to connect our 
intereft with the intereft of others : and as we are 
reafonable beings, not governed merely by inftinct, 
or the force of fenfation, we are to prove that our 
own individual good is increaled by being fhared, 
and multiplied by being divided. And as we are 
religious beings, for man is fo conftituted that reli- 
gion is an effential part of his nature, and the only 
folid groundwork on which he can reft his happi- 
nefs ; and particularly as we are beings, to whom 
the light of revelation has made known the duties 
of true religion, we cannot feparate the confidera- 
tion of the good which we do to others, or contri- 
bute to fociety, from the will of God; for what his 
will decrees, mud be our good; and what it forbids, 
our bane ; both as we (land in relation to ourfelves, 
or as we form part of a large community. 

56. As we cannot fuppofe that God would have 

P-4 



( 216 ) 

enjoined any thing contrary to out real intereft, as 
we are fentient and reafonable, or focial and reli- 
gious bein^Sj it follows that pure morality confitls 
in doing his will, as that will has been made known 
to us, without (laying fcrupuloufly to calculate how 
much fuch obedience may conduce to our own im- 
mediate advantage, or to the advantage of others ; 
becaufe, as God is infinitely wife and good, he cannot 
have appointed laws for our conducl, of which the ob- 
servance is not relative to our own good, and the good 
of others. 

57. Pure morality then confifls in doing God's 
will; but here is our mifery, that we are often 
powerfully tempted not to do it, and that various 
caufes confpire to make us violate it. Though a 
comprehenfive confederation of the fubject might 
prove obedience to the will of God to be our pre- 
fent intereft identified with our future, yet, expofed 
as we are, to the fudden impulfes and violent agita- 
tions of luft and paflion, we cannot wait the refult 
of fuch calculations. 

58. Lulls and pafiions are incorporated in the 
frame of man, as antagonifls to his reafon and his 
confeience; that they may afford opportunity for 
reafon to exercife its flrength, and for confeience to 
druggie againfl the enemy that oppofes it. In the 
frame of man, fenfation is often at variance with 
reafon -, and appetite with confeience. Reafon calls 



( 2i 7 ) 

for felf-denial; fenfation demands felf indulgence. 
Senfation regards merely the prefent; reafon looks 
to the future. The one is the fkfh luftihg againft 
the fpirit; the other the fpirit lufting againft the 
flefti ; the one is the animal, the other the moral 
part of man ; and thcfe two are, for wife reafcns, and 
in order to inftrutl man in the difficult art of f elf- 
government , for which no room could other-wife have 
been afforded, made often contrary the one to the other. 

59. By refitting his pafiions, which call for im- 
mediate gratification, and controuling his feniuil pro- 
penfities, man is trained up to habits of obedience, 
and fitted for a better (late, in which, fenfe and luft 
will have no fway. The lufts and paffions of men 
(the flefh warring againft the fpirit, ftir up their will 
againft the will of God. Intended to be a fubor- 
dinate part of our nature, and to find exercifc for 
our moral powers, they often become, through the 
neglect of a reafonable fclf government, thedefpots, 
to whofe influence we yield, and under whofe flavery 
we crouch. They keep the little ftate of man in a 
perpetual commotion. If they are not governed, 
they foon govern. They fix in the very core of the 
heart the ftandard of rebellion againft heaven. A 
conftant watchfulnefs is necefTary to keep them in 
fubjecYion. Our fenfe of duty ihouid be always 
burning; it is the oil, which fhould never be want- 
ing in the lamp of conference s and it is that oil, 



( 218 ) 

which we cannot borrow of others, but muft pro- 
vide for ourfelves. 

60. A fenfe of duty, fuch as will enable us to 
quell the tumult of our lufts and pafiions, of our 
irregular defnes and our inordinate appetites, mud 
not be only a cold faint belief that Chriftianity is a 
true religion; a belief that will not banifh one evil 
thought, or quench one unruly defire, but it muft 
be a conviction operating on the mind, and a per- 
fuafion warming the heart; whofe united ftrength 
will, in fome meafure, bring the future and the pre- 
fent into contact ; that will identify the intereft of 
eternity with that of time; and make the law of the 
Lord our ftudy and delight, our glory and our hap- 
pinefs. A fenfe of duty, compounded of a con- 
viction fo rational, and a perfuafion fo affectionate, 
can alone diffolve that forcery which the flefh ex- 
ercifes over the confeience, and arm the moral prin- 
ciple with ftrength to combat the attacks and to 
moderate the rage of fenfual defire. 



RELIGION WITHOUT CANT. 



The praclice of Repentance plainly and affectionately 

recommended. 



i.JljLow little do we know onrfelves! how feldom 
do we meditate on the nature or the number of 
our fins ! We no fooner tranfgrefs fome law of God, 
than we feek excufes to palliate the offence 3 and if 
confcience upbraid us we call in fophiftry to footh 
the pang. Thus we pracliie the groiTeft dim*mula- 
tion, even upon our own hearts. 

2. Few are they who do not know their duty; few 
are they who cannot diftinguifh juftice from injus- 
tice, truth from falfehood, humanity from cruelty. 
But, though we cannot plead want of knowledge, 
how feldom do we act on the knowledge we poffefs? 
Intent on the pleafures of fin, we blind our eyes to 
the danger of finning. We rufh toward the brink 
of ruin, confcious, but carelefs, whither we are goingc 
O ftrange infatuation ! 



( 120 ) 

3. Sin is, in the firft place, a violation of the 
moral law. Chriftians cannot pretend ignorance of 
that law, for it is not only imprinted on their con- 
ferences, but is clearly, diftinctly, and authoritatively 
made known to them by revelation ; and, as our 
Saviour declared, though heaven and earth fhall be 
diffblved, not a tittle of it fhall ever pafs away. The 
doctrine of Chrift is the eternal wifdom of the moral 
law, enforced with the higheft fanctions, and pro- 
pofed to our obedience on the pain of damnation. 
Whenever we fin againft any of the precepts of 
Chrift, we fin againft the moral law; and we cannot 
trefpafs againft any part of the moral law, without 
offending againft fome exprefs and revealed rule of 
the gofpeL The moment, therefore, we have vio- 
lated any one duty of truth, juftice, and humanity, 
or any one faying of the perfect law of Chrift, that 
moment we are polluted with guilt; and, without 
repentance, obnoxious to punifhment. Then we 
have need of forgivenefs; then we ought to exclaim 
with the publican in the parable, " Lord have mercy 
upon me a finner [" 

a. We ought frequently to meditate on the good 
and perfect law of God, that we may know how 
oft we offend, We ought never to lay down our 
heads on our pillow at night, without reflecting on 
our tranfgre Prions in the day. We ought, every 
night, to try and examine our thoughts, words, and 
actions, that we may know how far they have been 



( 111 ) 

regulated according to the rules of the gofpel. Wc 
ought to fay to ourfelves, have I tranfgreiTed this 
day in thought, word, or deed ? and what was the 
nature, and what were the circumftances of my tranf- 
greflion ? Let us put thefe queftions to our own 
hearts, that we may diftinclly fee what we have done 
amifs. This practice would aid our piety, and haiten 
our improvement. It would teach us to be on our 
guard againft fin, and to know ourfelves. St. Paul 
fays, " let not the fun go down upon your wrath ;" 
and, doubtlefs, we mall mod effectually confult our 
prefent, and provide for our future happinefs, if we 
do not fuffer the night to end and the morning to 
dawn, while we have one fin, unrepented of, hanging 
on our fouls. 

5. Men are prone to forget their tranfgreffions ; 
they fin day after day without thinking of their fins, 
or being aware of their danger; and they, perhaps, 
continue this practice for many years, till they have 
committed innumerable trefpalTes, which they have 
forgotten, but which God will remember. Fie will 
bring to light the hidden things of darknefs, and 
difclofe to the trembling and impenitent culprit, the 
evil of all his days that are pad ! How much then 
does it behove us to repent while we know what 
we have to repent of; and not to poftpone this moft 
important duty, till our fins have become more in 
number than the hairs o( our heads, and our ini- 



( 212 ) 

quities have accumulated till we know not their 
amount ? 

6. It is always dangerous, even in our worldly 
concerns, to run in arrears with time. It is always 
dangerous to put off till the morrow what ought to 
be done to day. Much more dangerous is it, in 
our fpiritual affairs, to run in debt with time, and to 
defer the work of our falvation, which it is perilous 
in the extreme to begin late, and which can never 
be begun too foon. Let us not attempt to veil our 
danger under the cover of that felf impofture, which 
caufes us to miftake the fictions of hope for a rock 
of fafetyl The impenitent fmner can never be fdfe. 
He is always Handing on the brink of the gulph of 
perdition ; and he may be plunged into it in a mo- 
ment ! In a moment he may pafs into that ftate, 
where repentance will be impoffible, and tears will 
be fried in vain. 

7. Repentance, it is to be feared, is ufually begun 
too late ! People tamper with their foul's everlafting 
welfare. There are, perhaps, few perfons, however 
profligate, who do not flatter themfelves with fome 
hope of improvement. They fix on fome ima- 
ginary period, in which they refolve to carry it into 
effc6l j but this period no fooner arrives than it is 
found inconvenient) and the great work is deferred to 
fome period ftill more diftant; and is thus fuccef. 



( 223 ) 

fively poftponed from time to time, till life has 
ebbed away ! 

8. Some are fo improvident of their future hap- 
pinefs, as to imagine that it will be time enough to 
repent, when their hairs are grey with age, or fome 
dangerous ficknefs indicates their approaching diflb- 
lution. But, alas ! how vain and deceitful are thefe 
expectations ! Few live to grow old, compared to 
the many who perifh in their prime. On a reafon- 
able calculation of the value of life, there is nor, 
perhaps, more than one perfon in ten, who attains 
his feventieth year. Many are cut off in their in- 
fancy; fome in the flower of youth; others in the 
vigour of manhood ; and how many are there whofe 
end is fudden and unexpected ? Thefe confederations 
fhew the neceffity of beginning our repentance to- 
day, while it is called to day, and not putting it off 
to the night, when no man can work* 

9. Repentance, begun late, is likely to be in- 
effectual. If we furfer habits of fin to grow with 
our growth, and to flrengthen with our ftrength, 
they will become, as it were, incorporated in our 
nature, and our exertions to eradicate them muft be 
vain. We may, perhaps, imagine that the divine 
favour will affift us in this arduous undertaking; 
but we have no reafon to expect that affiflance. \£ 
we have led lives, entirely repugnant to our fenfe of 
right and wrong, and to the laws of the religion we 



C 22 4 ) 

profcfs; if we have (lighted the words of eternal life 
in that period when we had health and ftrengthi and 
all our faculties were in their full vigour, can we 
think that God will be thus gracious when we re- 
pent becaufe we can fin no longer ? Let us not in- 
dulge fuch treacherous expectations. I do not, in- 
deed, fay that a death- bed repentance was never fin- 
cere, or never accepted ; but this I fay, that it is 
always unfafe, and feldoni practicable. The fcrip- 
tare, by no means, encourages us in trufting to fb 
precarious a flay. It tells us to be wile in time. 
It tells us to watch and pray; and fufFcr nothing to 
put us off our guard againft the enemy of our fouls. 

10. Some fmners aflurfte a falfc confidence from 
the example of the thief upon the crofs, who was 
forgiven when in the agonies of death. But his 
example holds out little encouragement to Chriftians 
at the prefent day. We are initiated into the church 
of Chrifl: foon after we are born; and who among 
us can plead ignorance, unlefs it be a perverfe and 
wilful ignorance of the truth, and the duties of Chrif- 
tianity? To us Chrifl is known; to us he is preached ; 
to us the words of immortality are proclaimed; and 
it is our own fault if we have eyes, and fee not ; ears, 
and hear not ; and do not make a wife and timely 
application of the knowledge we pcfTefs. The poor 
malefactor on the crofs had probably but one op- 
portunity of knowing Jeius, or at lead, of being 
convinced of his divine character ; but he did not 



( 225 ) 
fuffer that opportunity to efcape: he made an inftant 
and laving ufe of it ; his heart was pierced with con- 
trition i he implored pardon ; and obtained the par- 
don he implored *. But in what a different fitua- 



* As this pafTage in Luke xxiit. 3Q — 43, is frequently rnif- 
underftood, and encourages many in truiling, more than they 
ought, to a death-bed repentance, I {hall give the whole paf- 
fage in Dr. Clarke's admirable paraphrafe. " One of the rob- 
bers alfo, that were crucified with him, being a man of a def- 
perate and incorrigible temper, not duly fenfible of the great- 
nefs of his own crimes, nor confidering the tokens which jefus 
gave, in his whole behaviour, of his being an innocent and 
holy perfon, faid to him, in a difcontented and fullen manner, 
If you be the Messiah, ivhy do you not refcue yourfelf and us? 
But the other, being of a meek and penitent difpofition, truly 
fenfible of the greatnefs of his own crime, and of the juftice 
of his puniihment 3 and, obferving at the fame time, the ex- 
traordinary marks which appeared in this whole tranfadtion, of 
Jefus's being a very great and good man, fo that he became 
fully convinced in his own mind that Jefus was indeed the 
expected Mefjiah, he rebuked his companion, faying, How 
can you be fo profane and impious, void of the fear of God, 
and fo defperately infeniible of your own condition, as to in- 
fult over a dying perfon, at the fame time that you yourfelf 
are actually in the fame condemnation ? efpecially, when what 
ive fuffer is only the juft puniihment of our crimes, and no 
more than we deferve ; but this man does not appear guilty 
of any fault at all. Then directing himfclf to Jefus, he faid, 
Lord, I believe you to ba the Mc/Jiah- t and that, after all your 
fufferings, God will exalt you to great glory and power j I 
befeech you, when you come to be eftablimed in your king- 
dom, remember me with thoughts of mercy and compaflion. 
Jefus replied ; Verily, I tell you, this day thou fhalt be with 



( 126 ) 

tion are we from this criminal ? How many oppor- 
tunities have we of knowing Jefus; of attending to 
his inftructions, and of keeping his fayings ! but, 
how often do we flight thefe opportunities, and let 
them glide by us like the waters of the brook ? 
Alas ! this is the caufe of our ruin. We are not wife 
in times we defpife the day before us, and let the 
the fun of life let before we think that it is going 
down. 

ii. If we wilh to finifh that repentance, which 
is not to be repented of, we muft begin it early. 
Repentance, which imp' its a thorough converfion 
unto holinefs, cannot be accomplifhed in an hour, 
or a day, or any fhort time. It is a work of years; 
and its operations are (low and gradual. As no man 
becomes profligate in aninftant; fo no one becomes 
righteous on a fudden. It is only by degrees, that 



me in the ftnte of happy fouls departed." u Tis probable." 
fays Dr. Clarke, " from the admonition mentioned in verfes 
40, 41, that this robber had been brought to ferious confider- 
ation and true repentance fome time before he came to exe- 
cution ; and that having formerly heard of Chritt, and com- 
paring what he now law with what he had before heard con- 
cerning him, he was convinced of his being the true MeJJiaJi. 
But, however that be, and whether he was a penitent before 
his coming to execution, or not; 'tis certain his believing in 
Chrtfi at this firjl opportunity, hears ?io fimUitiuh to the late re- 
pentance of Chrijiians, zv/io 'have believed and dijbbcyed him all 



( 227 ) 

the firmer is hardened in unrighteoufoefs ; and it is 
only by degrees that he becomes righteous. Habits 
of fin, and propenfities to evil, cannot be fubdued 
without a long and laborious conflict. They drug- 
gie againd fubjeclion > and even when thcy/eem ex- 
tinguifhed, they will fome times rife, as it were, from 
their afhes, and lead us captive at their pleafure. 
Thus we fee in what a fatal delufion thofe perfons 
are enfhared, who imagine that their converfion is 
fudden and indantaneous j that they hear a divine 
call 5 that they feel a celedial impulfej that they are 
finners one minute, and righteous the next j that 
this inftant they are in danger, and the next in fafety; 
that this moment they tremble on the verge of hell, 
and that the next they thrill with rapture in the hod 
of heaven. Such grofs impofitions only ferve to 
engender a faife fecurity, and to make thofe who 
indulge them carelefs of their conduct, and utterly 
negligent of all the great obligations of morality. 

12. The penitent is never entirely fafe; he is 
always in danger of falling ; and the tempter is ever 
watching an opportunity to entangle him again in 
the fnares from which he has efcaped. Thus, then, 
even the righteous have occafion for abundant watch-* 
fulnefs ; and much more occafion have thev, whofe 
repentance is only begun, and not yet confirmed. 

13. When the converfion of a finner firft com- 
mences, there is a great inward druggie between his 

Q^2 



( 218 ) 

appetites, his pafilons, and his confcience ; till, by 
flow degrees, he learns to refill temptations, and to 
replace evil habits by habits of goodnefs. But, 
if repentance be a work of time, if the converfion 
of the (inner cannot, without the extraordinary grace 
of God, be completed in an inftant, it is certainly a 
itrong reafon, why none ought to put it off to a 
diftant and uncertain period ; and much lefs ought 
they to poftpone it, till the fand of life is almoft run 
out. A death-bed repentance is not to be trufled to. 
It is madnefs in any man to hazard his falvation on 
fo perilous and defperate a venture. 

14. And let us not forget, what too few remem- 
ber, that repentance means not only forrow for fin, 
but forrow producing newnefs of life. It means 
contrition generating moral improvement. It means 
a change from fin unto holinefs ; a recovery from 
the fnares of the devil to the fervice of the living 
God. That repentance is not fincere or faving, 
where the heart and life are not changed. The re- 
pentance of the drunkard is not fincere, unlefs it 
make him foberj of the liar, unlefs it generate the 
love of truth ; of the hard-hearted man, unlefs it 
infpire humane affection ; of the covetous, unlefs it 
extinguifh the luft of wealth; of the ambitious, 
unlefs it kindle the fpirit of humility; of the frau- 
dulent, unlefs it end in habits of plain-dealing; of 
the" deceitful, unlefs it produce fincerity. 



( 229 ) 

15. If that repentance be vain, which bringeth 
not forth good fruits meet for repentance, we more 
forcibly fee the extreme clanger of delaying it till 
the clofe of life, when health and ftrength are gone, 
and the foul is troubled with the fears of death. 
At that period, when all the nobler faculties of our 
nature are difordered, what reparation can we make 
for a whole life of fin ? At that period, how can we 
extirpate or reverfe thofe habits and affections which 
we have cherifhed from our earlieit years ? 

16. As the repentance of a fick man feldom lads 
longer than the period of his ficknefs •, fo we have 
too much reafon to apprehend that the repentance 
of a dying man is feldom real and fincere; and that, 
if his life were fpared, his fins would not ceafe. He 
would again return to his old ways, and perfift in 
his former tranfgreffions. 

17. If we wifh to make our repentance effectual, 
we ought not to truft to the uncertainties of the 
future. We ought to begin the work of our falva- 
tion to-day, while it is called to-day; as none of 
us know how the day may end, or what the morrow 
may bring forth. The prefent, that ineftimable 
prefent, by which we fet fo little (tore, is the only 
fafe and convenient feafon for repentance. Let us 
then not wait till that feafon be over 1 Let us not 
forget how ftiort and uncertain life is ! Let us not 

CL3 



( 230 ) 

forget the difficulty of correcting evil habits, when 
they have been fuffered to grow rank by indulgence, 
and to gather ftrength by age. Let us not fuffcr 
one day after another to pafs by us, without reflect- 
ing ferioufly whither we are going, and how great 
will be our mifery if we perifh in our fins ! 



RELIGION WITHOUT Cx\NT. 



'Temptations -, how to combat 3 and how to conquer. 



l.JUiFE is a (late of trial; and, confequently, of 
temptation. In the circumftances in which we are 
placed, we find motives to very oppofite modes of 
conduct. Temptations chiefly operate by oppofmg 
the animal to the rational nature of man ; they arm 
his appetites and paffions agamft his confcience. 
Addretfing their perfuafions to our grofs fenfes, they 
aflail us in that quarter in which we ufually make 
the lead refiftance. Under the form of forne pre 
fent good, or the attraclions of fome immediate 
pleafure, they invite us to forego that conduct, which 
is followed by no remorfe, and that intereil which is 
more real, though it may be more remote. 

2. Reafon and confcience are the great anta^o- 
nifts, with which God has provided us, to combat 
temptation. Would we but carefully cultivate our 



( 2ja ) 

rational faculties, and our natural fenfe of right and 
wrong, and which are fo capable of improvement, 
no temptation would be able to bring us into fub- 
jeclion. 1 he right exercife of our reafon will always 
invigorate the feeling, and incline us to the practice 
of cur duty. But if man, who pofleffes powers fitted 
to exercife, and capable of exercifing a fovereign 
iway over his inferior appetites, will neglecl: their 
cultivation, or rebel againft their government, he 
mud neceffarily become the flave of temptation, 
and fall into fin and mifery. 

3. When man does yield to the impulfes of 
temptation, he can, juftly, blame no one but himfelf. 
God places us in circumfUnces of temptation, in 
order to prove our obedience, and to exercife our 
reafon and our confcience ; but he never permits the 
temptations which we meet with to be greater than 
our ftrength, or able to overpower us without the 
confent of our will. Did God place us in circum- 
ftances of temptation greater than our power to 
refill, or more than the right ufe of our reafon and 
our confcience could conquer, he would be the au- 
thor of our fins ; and man would by no means de- 
ferve to be accountable for his actions, or punifh- 
able for his offences. But the Father of fpirits deals 
not fo cruelly and unreaibnably with his creatures. 
He never fuffers our temptations to be greater than 
our ftrength ; or, in fcriptural language, he never 
tempts us above that we are able to bear. He does 



( *33 ) 

not permit the perfuafions to do wrong to be natu- 
rally ftronger than the power to do right. 

4. Motives to vice are continually offering them- 
felves to our minds, fuggefted by the pbjects around 
us, the circumftances in which we are placed, or the 
oftcn-ihifting fcene of our lives -, but thofe motives 
are never fo powerful as that they cannot be refilled. 
If we fuffer them to overcome us, it mult be by 
our own free choice, and we are refponfible for the 
delinquency. When God permits us to be tempted, 
he always makes, with the temptation, a way to 
efcape -, fo that we can never accufe him as the au- 
thor of our mifconducl. He has given us arms, 
with which to refift, and by which to fubdue every 
temptation that may afTail us, through the infirmities 
of the fiefh, or the circumftances of our condition. 

5. Though the bleffed author of Chriftianity or- 
dered us to make this one of our daily fuppiications, 
<{ lead us not into temptation " we ought not to con- 
flrue the petition as in the lead implying that God 
ever does, or ever will fuffer any temptations to 
occur, which we are too weak to refift, or too frail 
to overcome. Such a notion of God is downright 
blafphemy; and it is contrary to every idea which 
we can form of his juftice and his goodnefs. But, 
as we know that God, for wife and good purpofes, 
hath defignedly placed us in a ftate of things which 
offer frequent occafions of temptation, the peri- 



( *34 ) 

tion Cf lead us not into temptation," muft be fup- 
pofed to contain a fervent fupplication that, in all 
thofe temptations in which his wifdom places us, or 
permits us to be placed, he would give us intima- 
tions of our danger, and place the obligations of 
our duty fo ftrongly before our eyes, that we may 
be prevented from violating it, not only by the ap- 
prehenfions of fear, but by a vivid fenfe of intereft. 
And when we pray thus to difcern our danger, and 
thus to know and feel that our duty is our intereft, 
we take the mod effectual method to imprefs the 
faiutary perluaficn on our hearts. 

6. If we duly confider the danger of fin, with the 
great prefent, and the ineftimable future intereft, 
which is connected with the performance of our 
duty, the confederation is furely enough to make us 
paufe before we liften to the fuggeftions of tempta- 
tion, even when it offers itfelf under the mod fpe- 
cious and infinuating appearance. Temptations ge- 
nerally operate by the lure of fome prefent grati- 
fication ; and it is thus, for the mod part, that they 
prevail againft us. Did they promife only fome 
future and diflant good or pleafure, we might have 
due time to reflect on the danger of liftening to 
them; confederation might come to. our aid; and 
we might prefer ve our integrity. Eur, by offering 
fome immediate advantage or enjoyment, they ufually 
take us, as it were, by furprife. They deny leifure 
for reflection ; they place themfelves within our 



( «3S ) 

reach ; we think, that if we fufTer the opportunity 
to efcape, it will no more return; and we inftantly 
fwallow the bait without thinking on its pernicious 
confequences. Thus the young and the old are 
feduced into fin. They fee the prefent opportunity 
of Tome finful gratification before them, and they 
greedily fcize it without (laying to reflect how iilufory 
it is, or how deftructive it may prove. Thus thou- 
fands are led into a thoufand excefles and crimes; 
excefTes, which fometimes cannot be repaired; and 
crimes, which penitence itfelf can hardly wafh away. 
Hence, do we not fee the great wifdom of Him 
who had duly confidered the circumftances of our 
prefent fituation, and our many occafions of falling, 
in directing us to watch and pray, left we enter into 
temptation ? By watching againft the deceitfulnefs of 
iin, in prayer and fupplication, we are kept con- 
ftantly on our guard ; and temptations cannot take 
us unawares. If they do attempt our conlcience, 
they find it a ftrong hold, fortified againft their ir- 
ruption. They affail it when armed in the panoply 
of devotion, and prepared to make a vigorous re- 
finance. 

7. When we are defired in fcripture to watch and 
pray left we enter into temptations, the injunction 
teaches us to be vigilant, and prepared againft their 
ingrefs ; to adopt prudent meaiures of precaution 
againft thsir open force, or their fecret wiles. We 



( 236 ) 

are not fupinely to give them admifiion into our 
hearts, and then imagine that we can (top their pro- 
grefs, or prevent their victory. No, we are to (hut 
the gates againtl them. It is too late to oppofe an 
enemy when he is already pad the walls, hist >o 
late to watch againfl temptations when they have 
found an entrance into our breafls '.t is too late 
to pray againfl their enchantments, when they have 
polled themfelves in our affections. 

8. The advice of our Lord, " pray that ye enter 
not into temptation," is in exact conformity to that 
petition which he enjoined, <c lead us not into temp- 
tation ;" that is, he exhorts us to implore Him who 
reads our thoughts, and knoweth whereof we are 
made, to difpofe our hearts and minds to have fuch 
a firm perfuafion of our duty, that we may not wil- 
fully enter into temptation, or unwarily Juffer temptation 
to enter into us. By often ufing this petition, and 
fervently feeking help from God againfl the tempta- 
tions of the world, we are kept conflantly on our 
watch againfl their inroads. We are prepared to 
ftruggle with them on their firfl approach, and to 
extinguifh the fpark before it kindle into a flame. 
As temptations are ufually bufy in working on the 
imagination, and captivating the will by the allure- 
ments of prefent pleafure ; prayer, by fanctifying 
our hearts and invigorating our faith, enables us to 
difcern that the pleasures of fin are fallacious as the 



( *37 ) 

apples of Sodom *. Prayer animates and frefhens 
our hopes of immortality, while it renders us lefs 
fenfible to the fafcination of fenfual and fhort-lived 
gratifications. It makes us fee injuftice, intempe- 
rance, and lull, in all their real deformity and dan- 
ger -, while it clothes juftice, temperance, and chaf- 
tity, in all their native fimplicity and lovelinefs ; and 
fhows them connected with lading fecurity and hap- 
pinefs. 

9. Though many temptations to which we are 
fubject, evidently originate from thofe circumftances 
in which God has placed us, yet it is probable, that 
the principal part of them, and particularly thofe, 
whofe venom is mod powerful, and whofe bite moft 
mortal, originate more immediately from ourfelves. 
St. James fays, " every man is tempted when he is 



* " It (the country of Sodom) was of old a moft happy land, 
both for the fruits it bore, and the riches of its cities, although 
it be now all burnt up. It is related how, for the impiety of 
its inhabitants, it was burnt by lightning j in confequence of 
which there are ftill the remainders of that divine fire, and the 
traces, or ihadows, of the five cities are ftill to be feen, as well 
as the ajlies groiving in their fruits ; which fruits, if you pluck 
them with your hands, they difiblve into fmoke and alhes. 
And thus, what is related of this land of Sodom, hath thefe 
marks of credibility, which our very fight affords us." See 
Jofephus' Jewifli war, B. IV. C. viii. § 4. I quote from Whif- 
ton's tranftation. 



( 23* ) 

enfrired and allured by his own evil defire *." Evil 
thoughts, whole prefence we invite, wh fe (lay we 
folicit, and whofe numbers we cherifh, till they iwarm 
into a legion of fiends, that fliut up every avenue to 
the conference, feem the mod formidable emifiaries 
o r temptation, and the principal caufes of our falling. 
We th ; nk and ruminate on fin till it lofes its de- 
formity, or till its mifhapen uglinefs appears grace 
and beauty. 

10. By indulging impure and unrighteous thoughts, 
though only for a fhort time, they often become too 
i ng to be refitted. They attract one another till 
they rather into a hod, which the reafon cannot dif- 
pe: fe, nor the confeience witnftand. Acting with a 
fort of fatal forcery on the imagination, they magnify 
the pleafures of fin to a degree fo intenfe, or give 
the n a form fo inviting, that defire becomes inflamed 
beyond the power of refinance. 

ii. By meditating on injuftice or adultery, or 
any unlawful gratification, the fond hallucinations 
of pleafure get fuch a firm poffefiion of the pafTions, 
that they banilh all concern about the danger, the 
fhame, or the fin. The imagination, interefto] in 
the piclure of fome ideal blifs, palfies the exertions 



* " By his animal part, to whkh his rational part can always 
be fuperior." Newcome on James i. 14. 



( *39 ) 

of the confcience, and prevents all reflection on the 
confequences. Any man may eafily govern his ap- 
petites, who can mafter the fenfual luxuriance of 
his imagination ; but be who gives the reins to the 
voluptuoufnefs of fancy, will foon find himfelf op- 
prefTed by the more than iron bondage of his lufts. 
He who will vigilantly avoid all evil thoughts, and 
refolutely oppofe his ideas when they feem difpofcd to 
Aide into lafcivious combinations, may prevent every 
inordinate defire, and triumph over every unhal- 
lowed pafiion. 

1 2. To contend, therefore, with fuccefs asainfl 
temptation, we mull learn to keep the fancy in fub- 
jection. Inflead of wantonly cherifhing one evil 
thought, we ought to ftifle it at its birth, before its 
affociates, obeying its call, and haflening to its aid, 
fucceflively combine into images of enjoyment, from 
which the attention cannot be withdrawn, and from 
whofe fpells the affections cannot be difentangled. 
Thofe who have acquired the habit of governing 
their thoughts, of cherifhing the pure, and fupprefting 
the unclean, will feldom be wanting in flrength to 
fhut out temptation from their hearts. But as, not- 
withftanding all our endeavours, fome impure and 
unholy ideas, the evil progeny cf paft adociations, 
will at times crofs the mind, as if endeavouring to 
captivate the attention, recourfe mud often be had 
to thofe fervent intreaties which piety will fugged, 
and which the founder of Chriftianiry fo ftrongly 
i 



C 240 ) 

recommended. Thofe who, with a pure and up- 
right heart, afk fuccour of God, will never find it 
to fail. But when, notwithstanding our firft in- 
treati^s, we feel evil thoughts gaining ground on 
our attention and getting the maftery over our will, 
we rnuft not only pray, but be importunate in prayer. 
Our firft fupplications are often not granted, to try 
our faith, and, by increafing our devotion, to make 
us better qualified to receive the fivours we implore. 
Difficulties, in the way of the refolute and the ftrong, 
only increafe their exertions to overcome them ; and 
many occafions there are, in which help refufed to 
the righteous, will only add to the intenfity of defire 
and the fervour of fupplication. Our Lord did not, 
till after reiterated refufals, grant the prayer of the 
Canaanirifh woman *, that he might try the conftancy 



* See Matt. xv. 21 — 28. The behaviour of our Lord on 
this occafion deferves our attention ; and it will in fome mea- 
fure ferve to illuftrate the manner in which God often tries 
our trull in his gooclnefs, and our patience in prayer. To the 
firit requeft of the unfortunate ttranger, Jefus anfutereil not a 
ivorJ. And yet there fecms to have been Co much diltrefs 
painted in the manner and the cries of the fupplicant, as to have 
excited the compaflion even of his difciples, who interceded 
with their matter to grant her rcquctt, and fend her home. 
But Jefus, as if unmoved by the lamentation of the mother 
furrowing for her child, and by the intercettion of his dilciplcs, 
replies fternly, "I am not lint but to the loll fheep of the 
houfe of Jfrael." The woman then came and did him obei- 
fancej opprelTed with gruf, flic fell at his feet, and, cafting 
up he: to his, endeavoured to intcrett his fympathy; but, 



( ^41 ) 

of her faith, by the ardour of her importunity. To 
pray coldly and negligently, with languor and dif- 



"it is not right," faid Jefus, " to take the children's meat and 
cad it to dogs." Did this harfh refufal provoke her fcorn, or 
offend her pride? Noj endeavouring to foften his feverity by 
her meeknefs, me returns an'anfwer which fhews the gentle- 
nefs of her difpofition, and the lowlinefs of her heart. " Truth, 
Sir, but the dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from their matter's 
table." Jefus could hold out no longer; he fent the petitioner 
away happy in his commendation of her piety, and in the 
recovery of her daughter. The reiterated denials which the 
Canaanitifh woman experienced from him, whom fhe knew 
to be the teacher of truth, and the minifter of compaffion, 
only made her intreaties more intenfe inflead of more remifs; 
and rather invigorated hope than produced defpair j till, at laft, 
her faith and her piety fo ftrongly manifefted her moral fitnefs 
to receive the favour (he implored, that it could no longer be 
denied. " Woman !" faid Jefus, " great is thy faith ; he it unto 
thee as thou defiirefl? Prayer always tends to bring us what 
we afk, when it increafes our moral fitnefs to receive what we 
pray for. And hence the neceflity of praying, and of praying 
with earner! importunity. See Luke xi. 5 — I J. In order to 
avert many of thofe phyfical evils which often make exiftence 
fo deplorable, and which feem the immediate vifitation of God, 
as fome cafes of ficknefs, and various misfortunes, lofles, and 
cafualties, which providence pours from the vials of his wrath, 
it feems fir ft neceffary to avoid thofe moral evils, zvith ivhich fuch 
afflictions are ajfociated in the ?noral order of the vuorld. Perhaps 
few fufferings are inflicted on us in the courfe of our lives, 
which we do not deferve \ and certainly none by which we 
might not profit, if we would ufe them well. When, then, 
we pray to be delivered from thofe harms which may happen 
to the body, or impair our temporal happinefs, le us not fail 
to confider that the mofi efficacious method o>i averting them, is 

R 



( *42 ) 

tfuft, is to make ourfelves unfit to receive the fa- 
vour we afk, and, confequently, to indifpofe God to 



by efcheiving evil, and doing good. Righteoufnefs hath not or 
the promife of the life which is to come, but of that which 
now is. It is not, indeed, often allied to great wealth or dil- 
tinguilhed honours; (for fuch things are a common fource of 
corruption and mifery;) but it is feldom found connected with 
torment of body or anguifh of heart. Goodnefs is the Car 
way to happinefs; and as far as happinefs regards a pleafurable 
flate of the heart and confeience, and which, perhaps, conftitutt-s 
the pureft kind of earthly happinefs, it will, I think, be found 
always nicely apportioned to our moral qualifications. But, it 
might be faid, if no furTerings be inflicted on us which we do 
not deferve, and which have not, at the fame time, a benevo- 
lent defign, why mould we pray againit them ? The fame ob- 
jection might be made to the ufe of prayer in general ; but we 
are to confider that we do not pray, in the vain defign of 
averting ills that have already happened, or which are in- 
tended to happen ; for this would be to pray in order to alter 
the will, or fruftrate the plans of providence ; but we pray, in 
order that the thoughts of fufFering, and the confeiou fuels that 
God can inflidt, and will infli£t it, ivhere there is a moral neevf- 
fity, may be fo ftrongly impreiTed on our minds, that, by acting 
Jo as not to deferve the puni/Junent, ice may take the fureji tuojf 
not tojujferit. Thus prayer enables us to profit by the general 
operation of moral laws, as indufu# r enables us to take advan- 
tage of the beneficial tendencies of the laws of the natural 
world. Hence there is, therefore, a great and unfpeakable ad- 
vantage in earneftly and habitually imploring a deliverance 
from bodily furTerings and temporal calamities; becaufe though 
we do not thereby prefume to change the courfe of the moral 
fyftem, we give it a favourable direction, as far as it refpe&s 
ourfelves; by altering, not its rcta'lons to us, but our relations 
to it; not by turning it out of its €9urfe, but by putting ourfelves, 



( 243 ) 

grant it. To fupplicate divine affiftance, if I may 
fo ipeak, without the fpirit of fupplication animating 
our requefts, and warming our hearts, is, inftead of 
making prayer a protection to ourfelves, to render 
it an advantage to the enemy. Such refiftance will 
not avail againft the flrength of temptation ; but 
warm, fincere, and earned and devout appeals to 
the throne of mercy, will banifh thofe impure ima- 
ginations which labour to enfnare us; and repulfe 
thofe blafts of corruption that feem fent from hell 
on purpofe to fear and canker our virtuous fenfi- 
bilities, and harden our hearts in unrighteoufnefs. 



our oivn hearts and difpojitions, in that Jlate, ivhich, being morally 
good, is, in the ivife arrangements of that moral government under 
•which toe live, invariably connected ivith, and productive qftem-. 
foral good, and prcfent felicity. This appears to me the only 
truly philofophical and fcriptural mode of explaining the effi- 
cacy of prayer 5 and hence we may fee how what is called a 
particular and perfonal, is compatible with a general provi« 
dence. 



£ 






RELIGION "WITHOUT CANT. 



Caufes of religious error and unbelief* 



I. JL he principal caufes of religious error and un- 
belief, may be traced to the ignorance and preju- 
dices of the mind, or the corruptions of the heart. 

a. Our Lord, who was certainly a friend to the 
free exercife of the rational faculties, was well aware 
of the confequences, that would flow from their 
abufe. He accordingly admonifhed his difciples : 
" Take heed that the light which is in thee be 
not daiknefs." Luke xi. 35.* Let not thy reafon 



* ^.y.orsi oiv, y.y rl fw$, ro £y <ro], crr.oros i<niv. Luke xi. 35. 
Grotius fays, " Laudo eos qui vertunt, confident an non lux tua 
tencbrce fint. Many of the commentators have, as ufunl, per- 
plexed this palTage in their endeavours to find meanings that 
were never meant. Rofenmuller is brief and clear. " Senfu* 
.eft," fays the fober and judicious fcholiait, " conlidera an non 
mens tua ignorantias et pra-judidorum vitio laboret." May I 
refer the reader to Dr. Clarke's paraphrafc? 



( 245 ) 

which was given thee as a flay to virtue and a guide 
to truth, become the means of bewildering thee in 
error, or of hardening thee in fin ! In another place, 
our Saviour compares the underftanding to the eye; 
the organ of knowledge to the organ of fight. u The 
lamp of the body is the eye ; if, therefore, thine eye 
be clear, thy whole body will be enlightened. But 
if thine eye be dim, thy whole body will be in dark- 
nefs. If, therefore, the light which is in thee be 
darknefs, how great mufi be that darknefs*!" Matt, 
vi. 22, 23. When the vifion is clear and vigorous 
we fee our way diflinclly ; we behold objects as they 
are, in their true figure and proportions. When the 
underftanding is in a found and healthy ftate, neither 
warped by prejudices, dimmed by fuperftition, nor 
torpid through inaction, it readily diftinguifhes truth 
from error. It examines queftions propofed to its 
consideration, with impartial feverityj it gives to op- 
pofing arguments their due force 5 and its decifions 



* I follow Dr. Newcome's tranflation. In his fupplement 
to Wolnus, Koecher fays, on this palfage, " Domini fententia 
haec eft; lucerna corporis oculus exiftit ; quod ii igitur oculus 
tuus fanus et integer eft, totum corpus tuum recte move,tur 
ac regitur; fin vero oculus tuus vitio laborat, totum corpus 
tuum motibus et actionibus rite perfungi nequit. Si, itaque, 
quod in te exiftit lumen, nempe intellects tuus, tenebris^ id 
eft, ignorantia et erroribus repletus eft; quanta? hae tenebrae 
mentis prae tenebris oculorum, quam perniciofae erunt, quan- 
tum tibi damni afferent ? Plus fane quam oculus male confti- 
tutu's." Koecher, Supplem. in Wolf. p. 15G, I67. 

R 3 



( 2 4 6 } 

are influenced only by the weight of evidence. But 
■when the mind is under the mifrule of prejudices, 
when fuperftition has clouded its horizon, or (loth 
has numbed its energies, it lees objects through a 
falfe medium; a medium which changes their colour 
and their form; and difturbs and confufes their rela- 
tions. Then, things that are ftraight, appear crooked ; 
that are light, become obfeure; propofuions that are 
plain, fcem abftrufe-, conclufions that are jufl, irre- 
gular. And thus, when that power, by which God 
defigned to fhew us the true relations of things, to 
fix the limits of right and wrong, truth and error, 
becomes itfelf darkened, how great, in the language 
of our Saviour, mud be that darknefs ! The under- 
standing, oppreiTed under a cloud of prejudices, can 
no more difcern the truth, than a blind man can 
behold the fun. 

3. Some of our earlieft notions are, often, of a 
religious caft. The curiofity of children is often 
remarked, and is very remarkable ; it (hows itfelf in 
an infatiable defire to learn the caufes of the objects 
around them ; and they are continually bufy in put- 
ting queftions to their parents and others, to obtain 
the information they defire. They afk, " whence 
this or that came, who made this thing or that." 
They are informed of one caufe after another, till 
their inquiries end in God. They are told that God 
is the author of all things ; that he made the fun, 
the moon, and the flars ; that he caufes the thunder, 



( 247 ) 

the lightning, the wind, and the rain •, that he is the 
great creator of every thing which they behold. 
Thus fome kind of religious knowledge is often the 
firft which children acquire; and if their parents, or 
thofe who have the care of their childhood, are of 
a religious difpofition, they will naturally endeavour 
to furnifh them with other religious information, 
befides that which their own cafual inquiries might 
fupply. 

4. It is certainly necefTary that juft notions of 
right and wrong mould be impreiTed on children 
from their earlieft years ; and it is equally necefTary 
that thofe notions fhould be ftrengthened and en- 
forced by the fanclions and perfuafions of religion. 
Children ought not to be left without the ftay of 
moral principle or religious belief, till they come to 
years of difcretion, and are capable of abftract rea- 
foning. They ought to be influenced by a fenfe of 
moral duty, and a pcrfuafion of religious truth, long 
before they can inveftigate the grounds of the one, 
dr the evidences of the other. But as much care as 
is poflible, mould be taken, not to impart to them 
falfe and erroneous opinions ; for, as religious notions 
are generally among the firft irripreffions which are 
made on the mind, they are the mod difficult to 
eradicate. They are often unalterable by the cleared 
deductions of reafon, and defy the moft vigorous 
exercife of the underftanding. When, therefore, 
pernicious tenets on religious fubje&s have been 

R 4 



( * 4 8 5 
infufed into the mind, and, as it were, identified with 
the phyfical organization of the brain, in the period 
of infancy, tenets fubverfive of found morals, of 
juft notions of right and wrong, of God and provi- 
dence, it may readily be conceived, how deftru&ive 
they mud become in their confequences, and how 
difficult in their cure. 

5. Even many perfons of quick apprehenfion, 
penetrating fagacity, and powerful intellect, often 
feel a trembling unwillingnefs to examine their re- 
ligious creed, to fift it to the bottom, to feparate 
falfe from right notions, to burn the chaff, and pre- 
ferve the wheat. Religion is connected with fo vaft 
and incalculable an intereft, and is often aflbciated 
"with fuch overwhelming fenfations of myfterious 
dread, that many, who are attracted to the invefti- 
gation by its importance, are yet withheld from 
purfuing it by its awfulnefs. The facrednefs of the 
theme makes them regard freedom of inquiry as a 
fort of unlicenfed profanation ; the pleafurable tran- 
quillity of their faith is, befides, not undifturbed byk 
certain anxieties of fkepticifm ; and their veneration 
for the truth, or their confeioufnefs of its connexion 
with their happinefs, makes them loath to inquire, 
left they Jhould inquire too far, or difcover more than 
they would wijh to know*. Thus, if they are inclined 



* Many timid people want refohuion to caft their eyes to 
that quarter which is expofed to danger, or from which danger 



( ^49 ) 

one moment to put forth their hand and touch the 
ark of their creed, they draw it back the next with 
fenfations of dread and uneafinefs. Thus, many 
remain all their lives long, willing victims to the 
moft deftructive errors, for want of courage to em- 
brace a more falutary fyftem. If religious notions 
operate thus on fome who pofTefs a confeioufhefs 
that they are erroneous, and have power to detect 
their erroneoufnefs, how mull they operate on others, 
who feel that they are infallible, and who deem it 
iacrilege and blafphemy to fuppofe themfelves, or 
to permit others to fuppofe, that they are in an 
error * ? 

is expected ; and thus fear makes them neglect the means of 
defence, while it deprives them of the pleafure of fecurity. 

* 11 n'y a rien d'exclufif, d'affirmatif, comme le prejuge j 
moins il raifonne lui-meme, et moms il permet le doute dts 
autres. Tout a fes yeux eft evidence immediate, parce que 
rien n'eft deduction : il fe manifefte avec impetuofite, parce que 
Vhomme livre au prejuge, n'eft point maitre de fon efpritj il 
s'irrite de la renftance, parce qu'il fe lie fouvent aux paflions, 
et que le mouvement des paflions croit en raifon des obftacles. 
Lorfque le prejuge ne nait pas de la paflion, il devient bientot 
une paflion, lui-meme. Car on fe paflionne pour une idee comme 
pour un jnteret. Une idee dominante devient un de nos be- 
foins. Son triomphe fe He & celui de notre amour-propre; 
fouvent nous la perfonnalifons en quelque forte, nous nous 
attachons a elle comme a un ami ; les contradictions qu'elle 
eprouve femblent interefler en fa faveur la generofite de notre 
caractere, du moins elles la font refibrlir plus vivement pour 
notre efprit j elles rendent done fon action fur l'imagination 
plus energique. Que fera-ce done n* la perfecution de 1'au* 



( 250 ) 

6. Hence it may be conceived how much preju- 
dices on religious fubje&s, when they have taken a 
ftrong hold on the confcicnce, and a deep root in 
the affe&ions, tend to ' obfcure the light, and to 
numb the exercife of the understanding. By the 
word prejudices, as I ufe it in this place, I mean 
iblely, falfe and erroneous notions on religion, notions 
fubverfive of genuine piety and morality, which cart: 
a thick darknefs over the light of the mind, prevent 
it from feeing the cleared truths, and from being 
convinced by the ftrongeft arguments. There are 
fome prejudices *, which were embraced from the 
perfuafion, or adopted on the authority of others, 
which will bear the teft of examination, and (land 



torite pent fe joindre a la contradiction du difcours, fi des fen- 
timents d'iudcpendance, li des peifpe&ives de gloire viennent 
fe reunir a lopiDion que nous avons foutenue, et fi on nous 
donne lieu de nous aUacher a elle par les fouffranccs quelle 
nous coute !" Degerando, des ngnes, &c. t. iii. p. 326, SJ.J '. 

* Any notions adopted on the authority of others, without 
a rational investigation of their truth or falfehood, may be de- 
nominated prejudices. Thus prejudices may be cither good or 
bad, ufeful or mifchievous. There is, if I may ufe an harm- 
lefs play upon the word, too great a prejudice aga'mji prejudices* 
Children ought to be nurtured in good and ivhokfome preju- 
dices ; but, at the fame time, as much care as is poflible mould 
be taken to invigorate the rational faculty, and to render its 
exercife eafy and delightful ; that when they come to years of 
difcretion, they may have the will and the capacity to analyfe 
the notions which they have taken up on truftj to examine all 
things, ami to hold fajl that which is good. 



( *y 3 

the fcrutiny of intellect. But fuch prejudices are 
not falfe and erroneous, but true, .and juft, and 
wholefome : and too many fuch prejudices cannot 
too foon be engraven on the memory, impreffed 
upon the mind, or incorporated in the heart. By 
the prejudices, therefore, which I am condemning, 
I mean only thofe tenets, which are falfe, abfurd, 
and pernicious ; which will not endure the ten: of 
impartial inquiry ; which would not have been em- 
braced by the underftanding in the maturity of its 
power j and which no matured judgment, not afraid 
of looking truth in the face, or irrefiftibly prejudiced 
in favour of error, could poffibly fcrutinize without 
being convinced of their mifchief, their falfehood, or 
abfurdity. 

7. The hi (lory of the Jews, in the time of our 
Saviour, clearly illuftrates the nature, and forcibly 
demonftrates the malignity of religious prejudices. 
tfheir prejudices, which had been tranfmitted from 
their anceftors, and which were cherifhed and 
ftrengthened by the whole courfe of their education, 
ran, at the time of our Lord's birth, fo ftrong in 
favour of a temporal Meffiah, a victorious chiefi 
and a worldly potentate, that they rejected the pre- 
tentions of Jefus of Nazareth, without the leaft ex- 
amination; notwith (landing the vaft, the multiplied, 
and apparently irrefragable proofs, which he gave of 
the reality of his character, and the truth of his 
pretentions. In the ftrange infatuation of their 

7 



C 252 ) 

hearts, they feem to have loft the right ufe of their 
fenfes. They had eyes, and faw not; ears, and 
heard not; and their power of difcrimination was 
paralyfed by the poifon of their prepefieffions. Great 
blindnefs of mind had happened unto Ifrael; and fo 
obftinate was it in kind, and fo excefiive in degree, 
that it rendered them infenfible to the evidence of 
miracles, and the glorious manifeftation o( the power 
of God, 

3. St. Paul himfelf, is a ftriking inftance of the 
flrength and the danger of religious prepofleiuons. 
By what ftrange delufions was he opprefled previous 
to his converfion ! His prejudices in favour of the 
Pharifaic ordinances and fuperftitions, and againft 
the fimple doctrine of the gofpel, were fo violent 
and fo invincible, fo full of rancour and acerbity, 
that though poMefTed of a vigorous mind, and no 
fmall fbare of penetration, he could not only not fee 
the truth, but laboured to (top its progrefs by the 
ckftrudtion of its advocates. The obfeuring power 
of his prejudices is well reprefented by the fcales 
that fell from his eyes at the period of his converfion. 
Prejudices are, indeed, fcales that prevent the influx 
of the light of truth into the mind, 

9. Let us not fuppofe that the delufions of error 
and the obftinacy of prejudice belong to the Jews 
and the Gentiles only; they are often found rank 
snd full-blown even among Chriftians alfo. Chrif- 



( *S3 ) 
tians arc, in general, too much bigoted to the notions 
of the fe£t to wh'iGh they belong. They are too 
prone to imagine that their peculiar notions arc alone 
agreeable to God, alone confonant to his nature, 
alone worthy of his acceptance. They fuppofe that 
none can be wrong who think as they think j and 
that none can be right who think otherwife. This 
prepofTefilon renders them flubborn in their belief 
and intolerant in their practice. It makes them, 
like the Pharifees of old, friends to the few who will 
proceed to the fame lengths of bigotry, and enemies 
to all the world befides. People who are fo vio- 
lently prepofTefTed in favour of their own opinions, 
as to think their fyftem of theology alone jufl, 
their ordinances alone reafonable, or their tenets 
alone true; cannot but think the fyftems, ordinances, 
and opinions of all others, erroneous. Hence, they 
vainly fancy their worlhip exclufively entitled to the 
divine regard j and they confider the worfhip of 
others as great an abomination in God's eyes, as 
it is in their own. Hence, with fuch perfons, into- 
lerance is a principle of faith, and an efTential ingre- 
dient in their religion. If they cannot convert, they 
think it juft to perfecute ; and with them a fpirit 
of ferocity is fubftituted for the fpirit of Chriitian 
charity. 

10. Let us not entertain fo fond a conceit of the 
increafe of genuine philanthropy, as to fuppofe that 
there is no wim remaining to employ perfecudon in 



( l?4 ) 

the fervice of religion. Clouded by innumerable 
delufionS;, and hardened by the fullen genius of fa- 
naticifm, many are flill living, and perhaps daily 
increafing in iircngth and numbers, who, like the 
Papifts of old, would forget the feelings of humanity 
in the rage of their intolerance. Thinking their 
own tenets alone true and infallible, they cannot but 
feel it a duty paramount to all others to bring the 
whole world over to their communion j nor will any 
compunctious vifitings of confeience prevent them 
from endeavouring to convince by force thofe whom 
they cannot convince by argument. In the genuine 
perverfenefs of bigotry, regarding only the imaginary 
goodnefs of the end, they would be reftrained by no 
favagenefs in the means of bringing it to pais. 

1 1. The tendencies to fuch diabolical intolerance, 
and the tendencies to it, from the fuggeftions of 
pride, or the imperceptible illufions of felf-love, are 
more frequent and more ftrong than we ufually 
imagine, might be, in a great degree, counteracted 
by the prudence of this confideration ; that while 
many points of faith and doctrine are dubious, points 
of practice are always clear-, that confequently, he 
who confults the gofpel only as a rule of faith, may 
fometimes err ; but that he who confcientiouflyy?«^>j 
it as a rule of life, can never go wrong. 

12. All modes of faith, though they may not be 
confonant to each other, or agreeable to the deter- 



( 255 ) 

minations of fcripture, will, probably, be acceptable 
to Gou, if they do not encourage immorality of 
conduct •, for, while fome points of faith and doc- 
trine feem too dark to be made clear, and too intri- 
cate to be unravelled *, the duties of morality are 
always fo ftrongly and plainly enforced, that any 
faith, which is adverfe to moral obligation, muft necejfarily 
be contrary to the doufrine of Chrift. For Chrift can- 
not contradict himfelf ; and as he has moji Jlrenuoujly, 
and diftintlly, and authoritatively , required the practice 
of moral duty, he cannot, at the fame time, have com- 
manded a belief definitive of it, or contrary to it. Of 
two different modes of belief, therefore, that muft 
be the bed, becaufe the mod agreeable to the ge- 
neral fpirit of Chriftianity, and the general injunc- 
tions of Chrift, which moft encourages the growth of 
morality. 

13. If points of faith be left dubious, men may 
embrace different opinions refpecting them, and yet 
not err in the fight of God. That many points of 
faith are left dubious, appears from this, that while 
different churches adopt different creeds, learned 
and confcientious members of the fame church 
often differ in certain fpeculative matters of belief. 
Some think that there are three perfons in the god- 



* From primary defign, or fubfequent corruption ? 



( *# ) 

head, others only one*; Tome think that grace is a 
miraculous infufion, others think that what is called 
grace, is that divine bleffing, which, in the moral 
order of things, and, according to fixed and efta- 
blifhed Jaws, as confbnt and uniform as thofe in the 
natural world, always attends on the operations of 
goodnefs. On thefe, and many other knotty quef- 
tions in Chriftian theology, individuals have differed, 
and may, and perhaps always will differ; but they 
cannot fo eafily differ about the duties of Chriftian 
practice s becaufe thofe duties are not obfeurely ex- 



* I wifh that Dr. Prieftley, inftead of laviming To much 
time and talents on a fruit lefs controvert)-, had profited by the 
following remarks of Grotius. " Vix eft ut cum de Deo loqui- 
mur, utamur vocibus, quae omnes incommodas interpretationes 
effugiant. Scholae Grrecae et Latinae, poft multas curiofas et 
audaces difputationes, in verbis tandem convenerunt, in eorum 
explicatione faepe diffident. Gr<rci vetcres quidam appellant 
rgQifO'JS vird^tsu); (fubfiftendi modos) id quod Latini Pcrfonas. 
Caeterum commodiilima ac minime intricate mihi videtur ex- 
plicatio, quam ecclefia Grazca, qu?e erat Conilantinopoli, tunc 
cum urbs ca capeietur, exhibuit Turcarum Sultano. Res fe- 
cundae delicatos faciunt, res adverfne fobrios. Veru7ita7>xn 
•vecikus tfnologicis, qu<r. conaViorum tmbuerfaiiutn auLiorhate aut 
magno conjenfu erud'ttorum receptee Junt, rcluclirnJum non ej}. 
Non enim ita imprudenter fictae lunt, ut non commodam inter* 
pretationem recipiant, atque" etiam a multis commode fint-cx- 
plicatoe. Quibus se addere, aut certe tacere, multo 

EST SATIUS, QUAM OB FES SI B I NON MINUS QUAM ALUS OB- 
SCUKAS, ET NIHIL AD EMEND ATI O N BM MORL'M PCRTINENTFS 
Tl'ltBARB REM MAX1MAM PACEM ECCI.I SJ/E." Grot, QD, tom. 

iii. p.6'15. 



( *57 ) 

preffed, or of doubtful and equivocal conftrucYion. 
They do not admit of a diverfity of opinions on 
their fanctity or importance ; and that faith, there- 
fore, cannot be agreeable to the will of God, or 
confident with the gofpel of his Son, which generates 
a practice oppofite to thofe rules of life, which the 
author of chriftianity both taught and practifedj 
from whofe yoke no man is free, and whofe obligations 
no man, whatever may be his speculative belief, has a 
•privilege to violate. No man can be found in his 
faith who is unfound in his morals. This feems a 
clear, felf evident, fcriptural truth ; and the prefent 
flate of the world, and the foolifh difputes and per- 
nicious errors at prefent prevailing among Chriftians, 
require it to be fo univerfally known, that I with I 
had flrength of lungs to make it heard, and ftrength 
of mind to make it underftood from one end of the 
earth even unto the other. 

14. All Chriftians mould endeavour, as far as 
they have capacity and opportunity, to form their 
faith in the doctrines of Chriftianity, according to 
the ftandard of fcripture ; but they mould at the 
fame time remember, that it is lejs incumbent on them 
to penetrate with Jcrupulous care and bufy curiofity into 
the myjleries of faith, than to lead lives conformable to 
that law of holinefs which Chrift eftablifhed -, without 
which no man's faith can be pure ; and with which 
God will accept any mans faith, though it may be 

S 



( *s* ) 

Jilled with involuntary errors ; errors arifingfrom early 
prejudice, a limited capacity, or deficient information, 

15. In matters of faith a man may err through 
ignorance, but, in matters of practice, no man can 
well err without wilful ignorance, an ignorance for 
which he is accountable, and for which no excufe 
will be accepted in that awful hour when every man 
fhall receive according to his works. In matters 
of practice, a man knows his duty without much 
inftruction. He wants not much learning to know 
that truth, juftice, and temperance, are his duty; and, 
in this refpect, the law, written on his confeience, 
enforces and confirms the law which is written in 
the gofpel. No man, therefore, can well offend 
againfl the great and facred duties of moral obliga- 
tion, without doing violence to his own fenfe of 
right and wrong, as well as violating the precepts of 
Chiiftian duty. 

16. When any man has endeavoured, with a pure 
and upright heart, to form thofe notions of faith 
which are moft agreeable to the genuine fenfe of 
fcripture, he may fecurely tfuft, that, if his practice be 
conformable to the practical precepts of Chrift, his 
faith will be accepted, though it fbould happen to be 
erroneous. No man can do more than exert his 
utmoft ftrength to difcover the truth; and if, after 
fuch exertion, his endeavours fail, God, who isjuft 
and merciful, will not, certainly, punifh him for an 



( 2?9 ) 

iitvolimtary overfight, or an harmlefs error. God 
only knows the particular ftrength of mind which is 
allotted to each individual; and he, certainly, requires 
no more than its vigorous application. When man 
has employed all the opportunities which his (ration 
alio -vs, and all the ftrength which nis capacity admits, 
in unfolding he obfeurity, or in feparating the per- 
plexities <;f religious truth, he has done his utmoft; 
and the Father of {pints does not demand any more 
to be done. To iuppof* that God will punifh a 
man for forming a wrong judgment on matters of 
faith, after the mod confeientious endeavour to form 
a right, or for embracing any tenets that are falfe, 
after the mod fcrupulous fearch for thofe which are 
true, is to make God cruel and unjnft. For God, 
as far as he is juft and good, cannot certainly make 
any man accountable for talents which he never re- 
ceived, or opportunities which he never enjoyed. 
He, therefore, whofe religious belief, however he- 
terodox it may feem, is the refult of a fair and honeft 
and rational examination of the fcriptures, need be 
under no alarm about the falvation of his foul: at 
the folemn day of reckoning he will hear this com- 
fortable fentence, " Weil done, thou good and faith- 
ful fervant ; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." 

17. Superftition is another frequent fource of 
religious error. It is one of the chara&eriftic pro- 
perties of fjperftition, to fu >pofe that a ceremonial 
worfhip is more agreeable to God, than the wonhip 

S 2 



( i6o ) 

of the heart and life. Thus it afcribes extraordinary 
virtues to ceremonial obfervances, and practifes them 
to the neglect of the weightier matters of religion, 
juftice, mercy, and truth. It demands and obferves 
a fcrupulous and inviolate exactnefs in little and 
unimportant matters, while it regards neither reafon 
nor confcience in matters of greater moment. It 
ftrains at a gnat, and f a allows a camel; it puts the 
means of religion for the end ; it clings to the forma- 
lities of devotion, and fets the fan&ity of mora] 
obligation at defiance. 

1 8. Our Lord was, certainly, no friend to religion 
degenerated into fuperftition, as any one may dis- 
cover in the twenty-third chapter of St. Matthew, 
which contains a mod animated invective againft the 
Pharifees. The excefs of their fuperftition was ma- 
nifefted in a punctilious attention to minute and 
frivolous forms. It was feen and heard in the gaudy 
fhow and the fugared cant of external adoration. 
They made broad their phylacteries, and enlarged 
the borders. of their garments; they devoured wi- 
dows* houfes, and for a pretence made long prayers; 
they fulfilled the ceremonial law; they made clean 
the outfide of the cup and of the platter, while, 
within, they were full of ex:ortion and excefs; they 
refembled whited fepulchres, beautiful outward, but 
within, full of dead men's bones and all uncleannefsj 
they affected a fludied reprcfentation of righteouf- 
nefs in the fight of the world, but, in the fi^ht of 



( a6i ) 

God, they were polluted with hypocrify and iniquity. 
Such were the diftinguifhing features of Pharifaic 
fuperftition, and though fome of them may be varied 
by lapfe of time, and the change of opinions and 
manners, they will be found to bear a general re- 
femblance to the character of fuperftition in all ages 
and nations. 

19, If we examine the fuperftitions which are 
prevalent among Chriftians, we fhall find that they 
do not differ in any considerable degree, from the 
fuperftitions of the Pharifees in the time of our 
Lord. How many Chriftians are fiercely zealous 
about forms and ceremonies, forms that are vain, 
and rights that are indifferent, while they are coldly 
negligent in matters of greater fanctity and impor- 
tance ! How many Chriftians fet profefiions of faith, 
and creeds, and fyftems, the mere fhadows and 
colourings, above the practice of piety, pure and 
unde filed ! 

20. Falfe and irrational notions of God always 
pave the way for the introduction, and always afford 
materials for the ftructure of fuperftition. If we 
fuppofe God a corporeal, a fallible, or partial being, 
which many feem to fuppofe by the vain mummery 
of their adoration, by the infincerity of their homage, 
and the intolerance of their opinions, we can hardly 
help being fuperftitious. If God were a corporeal 
being, if he were made of flefh and blood, if he had 

S 3 



( 262 ) 

anv particular form, any appropriate outward per- 
fbnality, the a r tiricial oblations of the fuperftitious 
rnighj be pleafing in his eyes, fuited to his ch raJer, 
and agreeable to his natun . When we addrefb aa 
enthly prince, we ufually >poroach him with the 
fhow ' great reipeTt and uverence ; the .nvv ird 
feelings m iv be concealed by the outward geftuxe, 
anc tht effufions of flatteiy may be miftaken for the 
h^mag.- of finccrity. But as God has no corporeal 
fhape, and feeth not as man feerh, he cannot be thus 
deceived; and the mere extern.] forms of dev< oon 
will not recommend the worfhipper to his favour, 
except fo far as they are unfeigned tokens of inward 
adoration. He cannot be deceived by the trea- 
cherous fmile, the unfek thankfgiving, and the 
mimic prayer. His eye penetrates the mod fecret 
recedes of the human bread; he difcerns the exa£b 
correfpondence between the heart and the coun- 
tenance, the thoughts and the profeflions ; and his 
difpleafure cannot but be excited by the unmeaning 
oblations of a counterfeited piety. 

21. As God is not a fallible, neither is he a partial 
being. He is fubjecl to no fudden changes of dif- 
pofuion, no unreaionable likings or diflikes ; no 
violent affections and antipathies He is the uni- 
verfal father, and the name by which Chriit himfelf 
taught us to ad Irefs God, "Our Father!" implies 
that, naturally, all minkind are placed in the fame 
ftate of relacionfhip to him, and equally entitled to 



( *6* ) 

his regard. As a good and wife parent will never 
make any invidious or unreafonable diftindlions be- 
tween his children, but where he does fhow any dif- 
ference of love, will fhow it mod to thofe who mod 
excel in what is amiable; fo we may be affured that 
God, who is the father of the univerfe, will fhow no 
unreaforiable tokens of fondnefs to one, or of aver- 
fion to another. And if he do (hew any preference 
in his regard, it will not certainly be fhewn to thofe 
who pay him only a formal worfhip; he will mod 
prefer thofe who mofl exceed in goodnefs. Of 
(Thrift, it is mofl emphatically laid in fcripture, that 
he went abcut doing good ; goodnefs was the caufe of 
his coming, and the end for which he came into the 
world; goodnefs was the drift of his inilruclions, 
the defign of his preaching, the motive of his mi- 
racles, rhe practice of hib life; and thofe accordingly, 
who make the nearefl approaches to this perfection 
of his character, will have many fenfible tokens of 
the divine favour in this world, and w.ll receive the 
fulnefs of their recompence at the refurre&ion of the 
juft. 

%%* Thofe notions of God, which teach us that 
he is not a corporeal, a fallible, or partial being; 
that he delights not in forms and ceremonies, and 
that real vital goodnefs is the facriftce mofl agree- 
able to his nature, and mod acceptable to his will, 
mud tend to banifh thofe falfe, irrational, and mif- 
chievous notions of religion, by which fuperdition 

S 4 



( *6 4 ) 

is engendered, which add malignity to its venom, 
and violence to its ferocity. 

23. Immorality of conduft is another frequent 
caufe of relgious error and unbelief. The under- 
ftanding is not always prevented more by its dulnefs 
or irs prejudices from decerning the truth, than the 
heart is, by its corruptions, from embracing it. The 
confeience is often as feared as the mind is dark ; 
and if a heart, hardened by vicious habits, be not 
the univerfal and infeparable, it is a common and 
often affociated caufe of infidelity*. 

24. The mind may, at times, without any falfe 
bias given by the paflTions, be too dull to lee the 
weight of evidence, or the force of thofe probabilities 
on which religious truth depends, and by which 
every fober and rational man will think it prudent 
to regulate his conduct. But it ufually happens, 
that a man's unbelief is more to be imputed to his 
vices than to his capacity, and that he is prevented 
from believing and embracing the truth, rather from 
fome perverfenefs in his temper, or fome obliquity 
in his affections, than from the errors of his judg- 
ment, or the weaknefs of his underftanding. A 
man's vices cannot fail of prepofTefhng him ftrongly 
againft thofe truths by which thole vices are con- 



* Immorality is not always either the caufe or the confe- 
quence of deifm. 



( 26 5 •) 

demncd. No one is willing to attend to that mo* 
nitor who upbraids him with his folly and his fins ; 
who fternly commands him to abandon fome fenfual 
propenfity, or fome imperious paflion, which he 
feels an intereft in retaining, or wants courage to 
renounce. The finner cannot readily bring himfelf 
to examine the evidences of that religion which 
threatens him with puniihment, and which he could 
not believe true without changing that courfe of life 
which he may find productive of gain or pleafure. 
He rather voluntarily (huts his eyes againft the light, 
than opens them to behold it. The vicioufnefs of 
his heart prevents him from making a right ufe of 
the faculties of his mind. His affections, entangled 
in the fnares of tranigrefiion, impofe upon his reafon; 
and he finds an intereft in inventing plaufible excufes 
to conceal his danger, or to juilify his unbelief. He 
is ever ready to iiften to any objections, however 
frivolous, which add to the number of his doubts, 
or increafe the ftubbornnefs of his infidelity. 

25. Our Lord himfelf, evidently confidered im- 
morality of conduct as the malignant principle that 
generated and cherifhed infidelity. <c Every one," 
faith he, " that doeth evil, hateth the light, neither 
eometh to the light, left his" deeds mould be re- 
proved j" and as he thought badnefs of life paved 
the way to fkcpticifm, fo he thought that goodnefs 
bad a natural tendency to produce faith in revelation. 
" He that doeth truth (righteoufnefs), eometh to the 



( 266 ) 

lijht;" an * he likewife gives to i proper fenfe and 
practice of moral oDlig.m«>n, a full afiuraoce or be- 
liefs for he fays, if any man will do his will, tut 
is, if any wan w II fmcerciy defiie, and fLeuuoufly 
endeavour to work righceoufneis, he fhall, on a due 
inquiry, know of the doctrine, whether it b of G 1. 
Th 1c impttilive declaration of the author of Chi if- 
tianity, certainly indicate that thofe, who perfnt in 
disbelieving the gofpel, ought rather to accufe t:ie 
unnghteoulnefs of their lives, than, the iniufficiency 
of the evidence. Before, therefore, any man pre- 
fume to deny the truth of revelation, let him fe- 
rioufly examine whether fome inordinate appetite, 
fome tyrannifing fin, or fome unbridled lull, do not 
give a falfe and undue bias to his opinions, clouding 
the clearnefs of his judgment, and perverting the 
rectitude of his underftanding. Chriftianity requires 
great purity and felf-denial; and, therefore, it is not 
much to be wondered, that it is fo ofcen rejected by 
thole who do not only not refpecl the duties it en- 
joins, but who burn with a vehement d^fire to com- 
mit the fins it forbids*. To a perfon whofe eye is 



* The hiPory of the Jews fhows the (irong tendency which 
great corruption of manners and profl'gacy of co duet h ve 
towards making men thut then eyes again ft the moft plain 
and ftriking truths. The Jews were not more blind of mind 
than they were hard of heart. Their prejudices refpecling a 
temporal Mefliah were one caufe of their rejettmg Chrift; but, 
I think, that a Jlrongcr and more powerful caufe may be dif- 
covercd in the enormity of their vices, and tiie extent of that cor- 



( 26 7 ) 

jaundiced, the colours of objects appear very diffe- 
rent from what they are. To one whofe mora) i'en- 
timents are corrupted, and whofe affections are de- 
praved, the truths of revelation mult appear of a 
lefs lovely afpect than they really are ; he naturally 
feels indifpofed to embrace a fyflem which places 
terror and deft ruction before his eyes, and wnich, in 
his gay ell moments, prefents the fatal iiand- writing 
on the wall, to the fignt of his guilty confeience I 



ruptions. Their pride, their avarice, and. perhaps, more than 
all, the libidinoufnefs and vindi&ivenefs of th^'r hearts, in 
which, at the time of our Saviour, they feem to have exceeded 
the ferocity <»f the wildeft favages, and to have furpaflcd the 
excefles of the molt intemperate voluptuaries, and which were 
fo oppoflte to the pure, the humble, the benevolent, the gentle 
and forgiving do<5trines of the holy Jefus, made them loath a 
preacher, all whofe layings were deemed a reproach upon their 
co lu&, and a libel on their crimes. The eafy yoke of Chnft 
feemed to them an intolerable bondage ; became *hey could 
not forego their lulls and paffions, and bring their hearts and 
Jiv?s in fubjettion to his doctrine. The fame reafons which 
operated on the Jews to reject the million of Chrift, will, where- 
ever they exift, operate on others of all Fucceeding ages, todeny 
the truth, and to fpurn at the duties of the golpel. 



RELIGION WITHOUT CANT. 



Evils of dijjenjion. Temperate fuggeft ions. Eccleftaflical 
union. The juft medium between indifference and 
intolerance in particular diverfities of opinion. 

I. A large portion of human mifery originates in 
the want of a peaceable difpofuion. Hence, the 
fwoid is unfheathed to make widows and orphans ! 
Hence, the attention of mankind is diverted from 
the purfuits of induftry, which diffuie cheerfulnefs 
and plenty, to purfuits which occafion nothing but 
famine and woe ! Hence, the progrefs of civilization 
is fufpended, and the profpenty of nations is de- 
ftroyed ! 

1. The few fhort intervals of peace, which Euro- 
pean policy allows to weary man, are feldom owing 
fo much to an aveifion to the principle of war, as 
to the want of refources to carry it on. Pride, am- 
bition, and revenge, the love of falfe glory, the jea- 
loufies of power, and the lufts of domination, are 
not extinguished •> the flame is finothered for a fea- 



( 269 ) 

fon, but the next guft of fortune blows it into another 
blaze. Thus the peace that fubfifts between na- 
tions, and particularly nations between whom jea- 
loufy is occafioned by proximity of fuuation, and 
war is prompted by the facility with which it may 
be waged, is feldom any thing more than a fhort 
ceffation of hoftilities. It is rather an exhauftion of 
flrength, than an extinction of pafllon -, rather too 
great feeblenefs to hold the fword, than a cordial 
defire to place and to keep it in the fcabbard. Thus 
the peace of dates, not originating in a peaceable 
difpofition, nor in a religious dread of the guilt and 
atrocities of war, but being occafioned only by fome 
temporary advantages, or fome momentary conve- 
nience, is violated when they ceafe j and the banners 
of blood are again unfurled as foon as fome finifter 
policy can generate or feize new pretexts for deftruc- 
tion. This perpetually-recurring ftate of favagc 
butchery and incalculable woe cannot be expected 
to have an end, till a fincere indifpofition to ftrife 
fhall be more prevalent in the world, and obedience 
to the peaceful precepts of Chriftianity (hall become 
the imperial guide of human conduct and human 
intereft. 

3. The love of peace always promotes an union 
of affections, and often of opinions. An union of 
opinions on all fubjects, particularly on doubtful 
queftions, on which different opinions may reafon- 
ably be entertained, is impofiible. The topics on 



( 270 ) 

which men mod frequently differ, and which engen- 
der the moft bitter animofities, are political jld] re- 
ligious. When political opinions are connected 
with temporal emolument, or are fpecial objects of 
public patronage, it is eafv to conceive why thofe 
who profefs them, defend them with zeal, and why 
thofe who oppoie them, oppofc them with violence. 
In this cafe, the advocate* of the different opinions 
muff, in fome meafure, regard each other as per- 
fonal enemies, and their affe&ions are kept divided 
by the divifion of their interefts. In this conflict of 
opinions, truth is feldom either the only object rhat 
is Tough: *, or the only end that is purfued. For, 
on all occafions, in which no fecret intereft biaflcs 
the parties to any particular conclufions, the male- 



* The following remarks of one of the lateft, the moft fober 
and moft judicious of ihe French metaphyficians, are deferving 
of attention, and are applicable to a very large portion of 
thofe difputes on which nv n wafte their talents and their time. 
" Lrf decouvertc tie la veritc a etc plutot encore le fruit que Tocca~ 
Jion des difputes des liommes, la v trite eft auili lente a ie montrer, 
que Terreur eft prompte a paroitre; ainft la lutte des erreurs 
op po fees entre elles, a du conmiencer avant celles des erreurs 
contre la verite. L'opinion vraie confifte fouvent a douter la 
oii l'erreur affirme avec affurance; ainft il fcmble qu'il y a une 
oppofition moins ouverte entre le fage et l'efprit errone, qu'en- 
tre ceux qui s'abandonnent a des erreurs diflercntes. Hnfin a 
une feule verite correspondent toujours on tres grand nombre 
d'erreurs, comme a cote de la ligne direcle, qui conduit au but, 
fe trouvent nrille autres lignes, qui en divergent dans tons lei 
ftns." Degerando, vol. iii. 325, 



( 2 7 I ) 

volent pafiions cannot intervene to perplex the quef- 
tion, and to inflame the combatants. 

4. Till the genuine, benign, and peaceable fpirit 
of the gofpel of Chrift, fhall be more cherifhed and 
more venerated by public men, we may hope, but 
we (hall hope in vain, that the conflict of political 
fentiment fhould occafion no coldnefs in their friend- 
fhip, and no rancour in their enmity. But, more 
fliange it feems, that individuals, who are placed 
farther fro n the brink of political contention, who 
can hardly have any perfonal intereft in the fubver- 
fion of one faction, or in the triumph of another, 
fhould not be able to think differently on public 
men and public meafures, without the rnofl: furious 
diffrnfions. Thofe who are unacquainted with the 
great actors on the political theatre, and who know 
nothing of the very intricate machinery which is 
required to keep the wheels of any government in 
motion, that prefides over a rich and powerful, but 
a corrupt and vicious people, can feldom judge with 
tolerable correctnefs, on meafures of policy, or the 
characters of politicians. And yet, what company 
do we enter, in which we do not hear fome men 
applauded as if they were patriots, exempt from 
every vice, and others reviled as ruffians deflitute of 
every virtue ? On thefe occafions, we frequently hear 
meafures, apparently intended by the advifcrs for 
the public good, inveighed againft with as much 



( 2 7 2 ) 

warmth, and as much bitternefs, as if they were pur- 
pofely planned for the public deftruction. Such are 
fome of the rafh and unfair judgments, which men, 
fometimes, peremptorily affirm, and paffionately de- 
fend; and of which they often hate, and even, as far 
as their power extends, perfecute thofe who queftion 
the truth, or refufe an unqualified afTcnt to their pre- 
cipitate affertions. In fpeaking of public characters, 
men are, ufually, lefs directed by the conviction of 
knowledge, or the evidence of facts, than by the 
rumours of common fame, the bitter afperfions of 
enemies, or the glowing encomiums of friends ; the 
virulence of flanderers, or the adulation of depen- 
dants. Political judgments are feldom impartial or 
correct:, becaufe the ideas, out of which they are 
formed, are ufually made to diverge from the ftraight 
line of truth, in palling through the cloudy medium 
of ignorance, prejudice, and malignity. 

5. What is called the public good, which it is 
the duty of public men to confider, and, as far as 
they have power, to promote, is, from the intricacy 
of the fubject, and the multiplicity of particulars 
which it includes, fo difficult to be known, and, 
when known, from the chaos of jarring inttrdts that 
are to be reconciled, fo d'fficult to be executed, and 
fo many different ways of doing it may leem the 
bed to different individuals, that the me.ifures which 
public men adopt, or the counicls which they &ive, 



( 273 ) 

ought not to be promifcuoufly cenfured becaufe the 
happen to run adverfe to our own opinions, or to 
obftruct our narrow and partial views. 

6. It is very eafy for any one private individual 
to determine what meafures he would judge mofb 
expedient for the national welfare j for men in gene- 
ral are too ready to imagine that what would be 
beneficial to themfelves, could not be hurtful to the 
community. But, is it not probable, that a council 
of flatefmen, raking a larger view of the fubjecl, and 
confidering it not fo much in its partial, in its local, 
or its perfonal, as in its general relations, will fugged 
very different meafures, and more conducive to the 
good of the community * ? 

7. When fo few poffefs the ability to analyfe the 
complex idea of the public happinefs, or to trace it 
through only half its diverfified relations, we may 
readily difcern how, without any finifter intentions, 
or difhoneft views, people may think very differently 
from each other, on queftions which concern the 
public welfare. The difficulty of afcertaining which 
opinion is right, or which is wrong, which has the 
ftrongeft tendency to promote, and which to coun* 



* Different men, placed at different heights of the fame 
mountain, will form different notions of the features, the pofi- 
tions, and produce of the furrounding country. I mail leave 
the application to the reader. 

T 



( *74 ) 

teract the public good, ought to teach their feveral 
defenders diffidence and moderation. On fuch to- 
pics, what fhould deter us from maintaining oppofite 
fentiments without the lead diminution of our mu- 
tual regard, or the lead interruption of our domeftic 
and focial intercourfe I 

8. Differences of opinion on religious fubjects, 
are another fruitful fource of animofity. Different 
fects, who efpoufe different doctrines, in a great 
meafure, refemble the different factions in a (late, 
in the fincerity of their mutual ill-will, in the ardour 
of their ambition, and the purfuit of an exclufive 
intereft. Political factions hate each other, becaufe 
each regards the reft as obftrudtions to the attain- 
ment of fome temporal end ; and religious factions 
glow with no lefs mutual hatred, as if the future 
good, to which each afpires, were totally incom- 
patible with the good of its competitors for eternal 
happinefs. The firfl feek to obtain the fole, un- 
fhared poffeffion of the honours that perifh; the 
fecond feek to appropriate to themfelves the crown 
of glory, that fadeth not away. They are both in- 
flamed with the fpirit of monopoly; but while the 
one is all greedinefs to engrofs the good things pf 
this prefent world, the other is no lefs greedy to 
engrofs thofe of another. In the flruggle for tem- 
poral and fpiritual dominion, the political faction 
feems, on the whole, to difplay, though not, per- 
haps, more benevolence, more fagacity than the re- 
ligious. The temporal diftinctions, honours, and 



( 275 ) 

emoluments, which the firft purfues, are limited 
both in number and in quantity, and there is not 
enough to appeafe the ravenous appetites both of 
themfelves and of their rivals. The richelt mo- 
narch on earth cannot fatisfy the demands of all the 
candidates for his favour, or of all the petitioners 
for his bounty. He cannot even gratify every 
moderate wifh, or every reafonable expectation. 
Hence we may readily conceive how envy and 
jealoufy, and all the malignant paffions, arife 
among the competitors for political preference ; and 
why their different interefts, which are fo incompa- 
tible, fhould be fo difficult to be reconciled. But 
the rewards which are promifed to the juft in heaven, 
are not fo circumfcribed in number, or fo fcant in 
quantity. The favours which the Almighty has to 
bellow are infinite ; and the regard which he (hows 
to one, can be no deduction from, and no obflruc- 
tion to that to which another may afpire. If the 
area of a palace be capable of holding only a few 
of thofe who are eager to pufh themfelves into it, 
there will be fpace enough in the courts of the man- 
fions above, to contain all the generations of all 
nations and ages, who deferve admiffion. It feems, 
therefore, not lefs the excefs of felfifhnefs than of 
folly, in the advocates for different creeds and doc- 
trines, to deprive of happinefs thofe with whom they 
do not agree, and to engrofs heaven to themfelves. 
But if man be cruel, God is juft, Whatever opi- 
nions individuals may entertain on fpeculative points 

T 2 



( * 7 S ) 

of religion, the everlasting gates will not be 
(hut againft them, who* as far as they have capacity, 
imitate God in his perfections ; and, as often as they 
have opportunity, do good to their fellow-creatures. 
Such confiderations, plain and fimple as thefe are, 
may tend to afliiage the rancour of religious animo- 
fity, and to fhow the abfurdity of thofe anathemas 
which one feci: hurls againft another. 

9. Thofe religious opinions which are productive 
of the mod bitter diffenfions, ufually relate, not to 
the weighty matters of religion, but to fome inex- 
plicable tenets, or fome frivolous forms. Few are 
the perfons who do not agree, at lead in theory, 
however much they may differ in practice, refpect- 
ing the importance of purity of manners, and holi- 
nefsoflife; and thofe, who thus acquiefce in believ- 
ing the ejfentials of found doclrine, fhould not contend 
about thofe things which have no reference to right- 
eoufnefs. 

10* It is becoming, and it is necefTary, that Chrif- 
fcians fhould maintain with warmth, but without 
pafiion, with zeal, but without intolerance, the effen- 
tial articles of religious belief-, becaufe fuch articles 
have always an intimate connexion with the practice 
of piety. Thus, thofe articles of religion which are 
eflential, may be clearly diftinguifhed from thofe 
which are not effential. The firft will always be 
found favourable to the growth of goodnefs ; while 



( 277 ) 

the lad, ufually afford nothing but occafion for ftrife, 
and fuel for difTenfion. Eflential articles of religion, 
fuch as thefe, that there is a God; that he is the re- 
warder of thofe that diligently feek him; that the Chrif- 
tian religion is a revelation of his will, cannot be dis- 
believed without faith being imperfect; while thofe 
articles which are not efTential, fuch as thefe, that 
the refurreflion of the dead will be a corporeal refur- 
retlion\ that the ft ate of the foul in the interval between 
the death of the individual and the loft judgment, will 
be a ft ate of inconfcioufnefs, may be either believed or 
difbelieved, without any addition to, or any deduction 
from, the fubftance of religious faith; which, if I may 
fo fpeak, may be believed without gain, and dis- 
believed without lofs. Our regard for the un- 
changeable and eternal obligations of morality, mould 
caufe us vigorouQy to defend the eflential articles 
of religious belief; while the fpirit of peace mould 
incline us neither pertinacioufly to fupport, nor fu- 
rioufly to oppofe, thofe articles which are not eflen- 
tial, becaufe they have no connexion with vital 
righteoufnefs. 

II. If a man believe that there is no God, which 
is the fundamental principle of natural religion, on 
which all its truth depends, and all its importance 
refts, it is more than probable, that the unfoundnefs 
of his faith will be manifefted in the impurity of his 
conduct. Difbelieving that which is the great fpring 
of practical goodnefs, his unbelief will become .£, 

T 3 



( *7« ) 

fource of practical corruption. As morality confifts 
in a conformity of the conduct to the divine will, 
it is abfurd to fuppofe that he will take any pains 
to conform his conduct to the will of God, who 
does not believe in his exiftence, or who denies his 
fuperintending providence. The difference of opi- 
nion, therefore, that mud exift between a man who 
difbelieves, and another who fincerely believes in the 
being of a God, muft be fuch as will necefiarily 
occafion a linking difference in their mutual con- 
duct, and forcibly tend to alienate them from each 
other in affection as well as in fentiment *. The 
opinions and the feelings of an atheift, cannot accord 
with thofe of a religious man ; nor can the fenfations, 
the fentiments, the emotions and dcfires of a reli- 
gious man, be in unifon with thofe of an atheift. 
The warm, the artlefs, the fmcere regards of friend- 
fhip, can never be extended towards him, who fays 
in his heart that there is no God; for friendfhip can- 



* It will generally be found, that a man who does not be- 
lieve in a God, never entertains any hearty good will towards 
thofe who do believe 5 and, probably, becaufe he thinks them 
more happy and more fafe. A fecret confcioufnefs of his own 
insecurity, an undivulged, a perpetually ftifled, but a con- 
stantly corroding and corrofive perception of his own wretch- 
ednefs, impel the efforts of the atheitt to drive others from 
the rock of their confidence, and to plunge them into mifery 
as hopelefs as his own. Hence we difcern why atheifts often 
e-xceed even the moll bufy fe&aiies in the zeal of making 
profelytes. 



( 279 ) 

not flouriih without confidence; and can he ever 
be an object of confidence, or ever ceafe to be an 
object of diftruft, who, wanting the only folid prin- 
ciple of fidelity, muft excite an habitual dread of 
perfidy and infincerity ? With feelings of commife- 
ration an atheift may be regarded; but the warm 
fentiments of our efteem he can never fhare. Can 
we enter into a bland communion with his thoughts, 
with his forrows, or his joys ? Can we fympathife 
with his fpirits in their loweft deprefiion, or their 
highefl exaltation ? Is he not placed either too far 
above, or funk too deep below the ordinary level 
of human interefls, ever to be interefting to our 
affections ? Does he not deem happinefs or mifery 
as mere fortuitous combinations of events that are 
uncaufed, or of caufes that do not originate in intel- 
ligence ? Does he not receive good without thank- 
fulnefs, and fuffer evil without hope ? Does he not; 
deride the paternal affection of Jehovah ? Does he 
not defpife his juftice, and flight his mercy* ? 



* There is great juftnefs in the following remarks of one 
of the wifeft of the heathen philofophers. " Sunt," fays he, 
" philofophi, et fuerunt, qui omnino nullam habere cenferent 
humanarum rerum procurationem deos. Quorum fi vera fen- 
tentia eft, quae poteft effe pietas? quae fanctitas ? quae religio? 
haec enim omnia pure ac cafte tribuenda deorum numini ita 
funt, (i animadvertuntur ab his, et n* eft aliquid a diis immor- 
talibus hominum generi tributum: (in autem dii nequepoflunt 
nos juvare, neque volunt, nee omnino curant, nee quid aga~ 
mus, animadvertunt, nee eft quod ab his ad hominum vitara 

t 4 



( 28o ) 

1 2. The great and primary principle of the Chril- 
tian revealed religion is this, that Jefus, the founder 



permanare poflit; quid eft quod ullos diis immortalibus cultiH, 
honores, preces adbibeamus? In fpecie aatem fi&ae fimula- 
tionis, ficut reliquae virtutes, ita pietas incefle non poteft ; cum 
qua firaul et fanctitatem et religionem tolli necefle eft; qui bus 
fublatis perturbatio vitae fequitur et magna confufio. Atque 
haud fcio, an, pictalc adverfus dcosfublatd, fides ctiam et focietas 
humani generis, et una excellentijjima virtus jujlitia tollatur" 
Cicero de Nat Deor. lib. i. § 3. ed. Lallemand, p. 131. See 
Grot, de Jur. Bell, et Pac. lib. ii. § 44, 4/. 

Locke goes fo far as to fay, " thofe are not at all to be tole- 
rated, ivho deny ihe being of a God. Promifes, covenants, and 
oaths, can have no hold upon an atheift. The taking away of 
God, though but even in thought, dilTolves all. Befides alio 
thofe, that by their atheifm undermine and deftroy all religion, 
can have no pretence of religion, whereupon to challenge the 
principle of a toleration." Locke's Works, fol. vol. ii. p. 251. 
In another place, this warm friend to civil and religious liberty, 
declares, " jVo opinions contrary to human fociety , or to thofe mo 
rules "which are neceffary to the preformation of civil foe it. ty, arc to 
he tolerated by the magiflrate" lb. 250, When Mr. Locke faid 
that thofe ought not to be tolerated ivho deny the bebig of a God, 
he certainly did not mean that they mould either be ftrangled or 
burnt alive, but only that they mould be reftrained in the pro- 
pagation of their pernicious tenets, and excluded from all places 
of civil truft and power. Few are the opinions which ought, or 
which can reafonably be the object: of penal reftraint, till they 
are embodied in fome overt act ; yet cafes may occur, in whicli 
the d.fTufion of mifchievous principles ought not to be en- 
couraged by impunity. A man may entertain an opinion that 
there is no God 5 and fnch an opinion is certainly not a fair 
fubject of judicial cognizance or civil punimment ; but, if an 
individual, not contented with the undilturbed poifeilion of 



( 2 8l ) 

of it, was a perfon commifiioned by God to declare 
his will to mankind -, to fhew what fpecies of wor- 



this notion, fhould travel up and down the country to make 
profelytes to it, and to fpread it abroad among the ignorant 
multitude, he would, certainly, deferve an exemplary punifh- 
mentj nor do I think, that in this cafe, it would be either 
juft or prudent to fufpend the puniihment till the evil effects 
of the opinion had become vifible and palpable in fome open 
violation of the laws. If I find a man fowing thiftles in my 
field, am I to fuffer him to proceed till the thiftles come up 
and choke my corn ? That an atheift ought to be excluded 
from all places of civil and ecclefiaftical truft and power, every 
friend to piety will allow; but then, what teft mail we frame, 
by which to diftinguiuh him who really is an atheift, from 
him who really is not an atheift? An atheift is a man who 
denies the being of a God ; and the being of a God may cer- 
tainly be denied in two ways ; in ivord, and in deed. Now, 
to deny God in practice, is certainly worfe than to deny him 
in word only ; but if we were to rank as atheifls all thofe who 
deny God in practice, that is, ivho Irv&.as if there ivas no God 
in the ivorld to ivhom they tuere accountable for their actions, I 
fear that fome of thofe who now pafs for ftridt religionifts, 
would themfelves be objects of the very intolerance which they 
defend ! And yet what better teji can you have of a man's 
belief or unbelief, his religion or irreligion, than his conduct ? 
Let, therefore, no man be admitted to any flation of power 
or truft, to civil or ecclefiaftical honours, ivhofe life isfuch as 
to prove that he has no fear of God before his eyes ; who has been 
convicted of perjury, fraud, extortion, adultery, or any heinous 
violation of morality. And as all punifhment ought, as much 
as is poffible, tend to the reformation of the criminal, let the 
exclufion continue only for a certain period, or till con- 
trition of heart is manifefted in a reformation of conduct. 
Such regulations, adopted by the legiflature, would be more 



( *82 ) 

/hip was mod agreeable to the divine pleafure, and 
moft conducive to their own eternal happinefs. He 
who denies this, is not a Chriftian ; and we cannot 
regard him with the fame affection as we fhould if 
he belonged to the fold of (Thrift. Such a divifion 
in our fentiments, will prevent a thorough union in 
our hearts. We love, and we cannot well help 
loving thofe moft, whofe principles are moft con- 
genial to our own, whofe modes of thinking and of 
action we moft approve, and with the varied changes 
in whofe affections and circumftances we feel the 
ftrongeft propenfity to fympathife. A fincere be- 
liever in the Chriftian revelation, may contemplate 
a deift without averfion and without fcorn ; but how 
can he regard with unmingled fatisfaction and un*> 
alloyed efteem, one who regards that fyftem, in which 
he finds a perennial fource of prefent confolation, 
and from which he derives a cheering affurance of 
future glory, either as an artfully contrived or a well 
defigned impofture; who looks not unto Chrift with 
affection and with reverence, as the beloved fon of 
God; who imitates not the perfections of his life; 
who venerates not the memory of his death ; ancj 

likely to ftop the fpread of atheifm, than all the laws that were 
ever framed, and, perhaps, all the fermons that were ever 
preached. In vain {hall we endeavour to Hem the torrent of 
irreligion which is rapidly fweeping away all the virtuous 
principles of the people, while we heap riches and honours on 
thofe who, if they do profefs great zeal for the glory of God 
with their ltps, do fhew ific ranhji athafm hi their lives! 

7 



( *8 3 ) 

who rejoices not in the hope of his refurre&ion? 
Though in all who glory in the profeffion of Chris- 
tianity, and in whom that profefilon is aflbciated 
with vivid feelings of relped, of admiration, and of 
gratitude for the beloved name of Chrift, fuch dif- 
ferences of opinion may, and mud produce a dimi- 
nution of our perlbnal regard, yet they ought not to 
exclude the individual from that degree of regard 
which the genuine philanthropic will feel for every 
particular member of the human fpecies. 

13. As God made of one blood all the nations 
of men that dwell on the face of the whole earth, 
every fingle member of the univerfal family of man- 
kind has a claim to certain fenfations of humane 
regard; a claim which is indefeafible and inalienable; 
which he cannot part with, and which we ought not 
to caft away. The fentient nature of man alone, 
without any reference to his religion or his country, 
to the nearnefs or the remotenefs of his relation to 
us by any particular, any local or moral ties, ought 
to be his protection from cruelty, and his ihield 
againfl: injury*. But at the fame time, the na- 
tural claim to regard which any individual has, as 
a being pofTefling the fame common properties of 
the fame common humanity, is greatly increafed by 
the ties of kindred, friendfhip, neighbourhood, which 



* Injury is here ufed as any harm done with a malicious 
intention. 



( *s 4 ) 

render the general feeling more lively, diftinft, par- 
ticular; and in proportion as thefe endearments of 
family, friendlhip, neighbourhood, of the fame civil 
and religious inftitutions are diminimed, our affection 
for the individual decreafes till it fubfides into a fort 
of ferene complacency, which will often border on 
indifference, and, in fome cafes, approach averfion ; 
but which ought never to be fuffered to fwell into 
rage, or inflame into rancour. 

14. Whatever ferves to increafe or to ftrengthen 
our particular attachments, invigorates and multi- 
plies the motives to preference, becaufe it renders 
that general good-will which we feel towards the 
univerfal fpecies of man, more exclufively appro- 
priate to the individual. And thefe attachments, 
thus individuated by family, friendship, neighbour- 
hood, by affinities domeftic, local, civil, and reli- 
gious, are greatly heightened by the moral approba- 
tion of the perfon, 

15. If a man be our brother, cur friend, or ac- 
quaintance, he may reafonably have a particular 
claim to our regard, merely upon th^ fcore of kin- 
dred, friend (hip, acquaintance, but thefe claims will 
be found, in all cafes, to be ftrengthened, anJ, in 
fome degree, hallowed by our moral approbation 
of the individual •, and which, in calamity, increafes 
the willingnefs to relieve, and the pleafure in re- 
lieving. If a man be connected with us by na 



( **S ) 

particular relations, but only as he is a being of the 
fame fpecies, fubject, like ourfelves, to pain and 
pleafure, to imperfections and uncertainties, his 
claim to any preference in diftrefs, mud depend 
almoft folely on the moral eitimation of his charac- 
ter. In the operations of beneficence, moral qua- 
lities will perhaps, in fome cafes, demand a pre- 
ference even in the prefence, but always in the 
abfence of other motives. 

1 6. A communion in religious opinions has a 
ftrong tendency to increafe our good-will towards 
the individual ; and this increafe of affection may 
very reafonably be ex peeled to take place, when 
thofe opinions have a direct and intimate affociation 
with goodnefs of conduct ; and confequently raife 
the perfon in the fcale of moral eftimation. Moral 
approbation may, indeed, often neither be dimU 
nifhed nor augmented by a difference or agreement 
in particular tenets of religion; for the tenets in 
which we differ or agree, may have no real or ap- 
parent connexion with moral worth; may neither 
favour its growth, nor promote its*decline; and, 
confequently, ought not to make any addition to, 
or any deduction from, our moral approbation of 
him, by whom they are efpoufed. 

17. An individual may differ from me in be- 
lieving that the day of judgment, as mentioned in 
fcripture, is not to be literally conftrued, but to be 



( 286 ) 

underftood as an adaptation to human forms of 
fpeech** but fuch a difference ought not, and can- 



* Since the greater part of this work was written, and the 
former fheets printed off, I have been favoured with the pe- 
rufal of Dr. Parr's Spital fermon, in which he fays with his 
accuftomed moderation, " Numerous and weighty indeed are 
the reafons which induce far the greater part of enlightened 
Christians to believe, that the fcriptural paffages in which 
)j tyjs x§i<rzuj$ yp&S&f o r what is fometimes equivalent, ij i}ue£<% 
is mentioned, ihould be interpreted literally, and that the re- 
wards and punifhments of another life will be difpenfed judi- 
cially. There are, however, fome perfons, who, with equal 
folicitude for the intereft of virtue, and equal reverence for 
the authority of fcripture, contend, that the well-known prin- 
ciple of dytjcuirfortdhicc may be applied to fuch paffages 5 and 
that the jujlice of the Deity will be adminiftered by a regular 
feries of caufes and effefls, producing happinefs to the righteous, 
and mifery to the wicked." p. 152, 153. There may be fome 
few queftions, political, moral, and religious, in which I do 
not coincide in opinion with Dr. Parr j but, on all the great 
and fundamental principles of policy, morality, and religion, 
I truft that there are only fuch fhades of difference be- 
tween us, as there muft neceffarily be between perfons, who, 
equally attached to the interefts of truth, will not lurrender to 
others the right «f thinking for themfelves. 

Whatever be the fubject which engages the attention of Dr. 
Parr, whether it relate to the delicate refinements of philology, 
the intricate abftraclions of metaphyfics, the plained truths in 
morals, or the loftieft fpeculations in philofophy, we never fail 
of receiving equal instruction and delight from the variety of 
his erudition, the depth of his refearch, the largenefs of his 
views, the warinefs of his conclufions, and the richnefs of his 
eloquence. The ornaments of his fiyle are often coftly, and 
fplendid, and gorgeous j but exquifitely wrought, nicely pro. 



( a8 7 ) 

not, reafonably, detract from> r^ir moral approbation 
of each other; for it is of ?* f little confequence to 
the great interefts of morally, and it can neither 
add to, nor take from the common perfuafions to 
moral obligation, whether the laft judgment be un- 
derflood, according to the popular opinion, in the 
ftriclnefs of the letter, or whether, as intimating that 
every individual will be perfonally judged, if I may 
fo fpeak, the moment that he dies ; that is, will pais 
immediately after his diflblution, into that condition 
of happinefs or mifery, for which he is fitted by the 
pad habits of his mortal life. 

1 8. Whether the lad fentence be pafTed colleftively 
and at the fame time, on all the individuals of all 
countries and ages, or whether every particular in- 
dividual be, feparately> fentenced to receive accord- 
ing to his works, is a queftion more curious than 
important; and the interefts of morality will not 
fuffer, whichsoever opinion we embrace. But when 
any individual profeiTes tenets which are entirely 
adverfe to the fundamental principles of true reli- 
gion, the cafe is altered ; our moral approbation of 
the peribn vindicating fuch opinions is dirninifhed ; 
we regard him not only as an alien from the houfe- 
hold of faith, but an enemy to the happinefs of 



portioned, and happily combined ; they refemble the exuberant 
magnificence of an eaftern palace, difpofed with the fimple 
tafte of a Grecian artift. 



( 288 ) 

fociety. The mor^Lriiflatisfaftion, which we feel* 
chills the warmtl,v e ^ dihevolent fenfation, and re 
preffes the adtivity'o/iv.ae benevolent principle. The 
claim to compaflion is more weak, and the motives 
to fuccour are lefs ftrong. But we are to remember 
that benevolence may be cooled, without malice 
"being inflamed; and that an union of the fentiments 
can never be effected by an oppofuion of the paf- 
fions. There is no tendency, in the genius of con- 
tention, to refute errors, to extirpate prejudices, to 
fettle principles, or to harmonife opinions. Reafon 
difallows, humanity profcribes, and religion forbids 
fuch methods of vanquifhing falfehood, or of aiding 
the triumphs of truth. 

19. Thofe differences of opinion among Chrif- 
tians, which create fuch deadly animofities, feldom 
relate to effential matters of belief, but to points, 
about which we may differ, without erring from the 
way ofrighteoufnefs. As the members of the fame 
family may think very differently on many little 
points of domeftic intereft, without any reafonable 
deduction from thofe tender regards which the ties 
of family prefcribe ; fo, among Chriftians, diverfities 
of fentiment on many queflions of uncertain doc- 
trine, as the co-eternity and co-equality of the three 
perfons in the godhead, the formalities of the future 
judgment, or the duration of future punifliments, 
ought not to produce diffenfions, feparations, and 
fchifms in the great family of Chrift. 



( *°9 ) 

20. In order, as much as pofilble, to prevent 
divifions in the church of Chrift, the apoftles ear* 
neftly enjoin us, cc to follow peace," Heb. xii. 14. 
to endeavour to <c live peaceably with all men/' 
Rom. xii. 18. to "follow righteoufnefs, faith, (that 
is, truth,) love, peace, together with thofe that call 
on the Lord out of a pure heart." 1 Tim. ii. 22. In 
this lad pafTage it particularly deferves our attention, 
that peace> or the prefervation of amity and fellow- 
fhip with all good Christians *> is claiTed among the 
primary Chriftian virtues, and placed by the fide of 
juftice, truth, and charity. And hence we may learn 
the crying and damning fin of difturbing the peace 
of the houfehold of Chrift by mifchievous divifions 
and invidious diftinctions. The guilt of fchifm (for 
fchifm, being a violation of Chriftian charity, is cer- 
tainly a fin) is incurred, when thofe, who ought to 
agree in one communion, erect hoftile churches, and 
form feparate congregations, without fufficient rea- 
fons j\ 



* Mera rwv sifiyiccXovu^vooy rov Kvoiov hi K6c$BLpa$ x&piiaf. 

f May I addrefs the prefent champions of ecclefiaftical 
diflenfion in the eloquent interrogatories of the venerable Cle- 
ment, the companion of St. Paul, and the fucceffor of St. Peter? 
'* tX Iva ri zpeic, xai Svpo], xa} foxoo'ra.cicu, xai a-yja-^ccroL, tfoXsuos 
re Iv uafv; n o-}yj 'hcc ®£ov %%pfj,sv 9 koa. \v% Xpirrov; kcli gy 
tfVEvpot rvj$ yJ>-MTo<; ro ekVoQev s<f yySc, xai ^lOCKXyjrigsv Xpicrw, 
ivart Ci2Av.ou.sv y.cci oicccirw^cy rx (xsAry rs Xpirrs, new G-roLcrid^opzy 
1:00s ro cuJlix ro /&ov, xai s$ roo-ccvrr^ dtfovoizv spyo^x, tiers 
§iti\a$&trfei rjpots art /xsPoj sfpsv aAXijAwyj" Vid, S. Clem, ad 

u 



( *9° ) 

St. The only reafons which can juftify a ieceflion 
from the bofom of that church, or houfchold of 
faith, which is eftablifhed in the country in which 
we live, are either great and notorious corruptions in 
its doctrine, or in the practice of its members, fuch 
as caufed our anceftors to feparate from the com- 
munion of papal Rome. But can any reafons, fimi- 
lar in kind, or equal in ftrength, be alleged to ex- 
cufe the prefent numerous feparations from the Pro- 
teftant Church of England ? Is her doctrine defiled 
with the fame pollutions? Are her rites encumbered 
with the fame mummeries, or her minifters dif- 
graced by the fame enormities i If there be fome 
fuperfluities in her liturgy, or fome erroneous con- 
clufions in her articles, are they of fuch a nature as 
to afford a reafonable pretext to the majority of dif- 
fidents, for the defertion of her communion ? 

22. No liturgy can well be fo framed as to appear 
blamelefs to men of different opinions, or to fuit the 
taftes and widiesof all fects^ but though the Englifh 
liturgy may be, and certainly is, liable to particular 
objections, does it, notwithltanding, not deferve the 
fincere, if not the unqualified approbation, of all 
feds of Chriftians ? In its detached parts, faulty paf* 

Corinth. Epift. i. 46. Coteier. Patr. Apoftol. vol. i. p. 174, 175. 
Ed. Amftel. 1724. May I, at the fame time, and on the fame 
authority, add? that " dyditr] c^ia-^a. o-x €%-*, dyditrj ou 
crocaridgsi, dyditt] itxvra, iroih zv o/xovo/a* and that £<'%& dydrfrjs 
ovtiev tudpso-riv hri rev ©ex-." p. l J6, 



( *9x ) 

fages may appear ; fome prejudices may be remarked 
which were not fo much the errors of the authors, 
as of the age in which they lived ; but, confidered 
as a whole, it breathes the moft liberal fentiments, 
the moft enlightened piety, and the moft compre- 
henfive charity: it contains petitions fuited to all the 
neceffities, and to all conditions of mankind; not a 
fupplication is wanting that we can ever have oc- 
cafion to utter, for our own good, or the good of 
others ; and it can never be devoutly read, or atten- 
tively heard, without the moft beneficial influence 
on our thoughts and actions, our hearts and lives. 
None of the prayers are polluted by cant, or embar- 
rafTed by hypocrify; they afford the ftrongeft internal 
teftimony, that thofe who compofed them did not 
write what they did not feel 5 they are characterifed 
by fimplicity and fincerity; and hallowed by the 
genuine afpirations of unaffected piety. In fuch a 
liturgy, fo far fuperior to all the extravagances of 
extemporaneous devotion, fo falutary in its tendency, 
fo benign in its fpirit, and fo fublime in its compo- 
fition, the particular defects are loft in the general 
beauty; and fome few pafTages, which defer ve cen- 
fure, may well be forgotten in the many, on which 
it would be rank impiety not to beftow unqualified 
approbation. 

23. Thofe fects who pretend that the partial 
blemifhes or the particular defects, which they defcry 
in the Church of England, are the grounds of their 

U 2 



( 292 ) 

ieparation, ought furely to confider whether its ge- 
net al excellence and its general ufefulnek might 
not, with more reafon, become the grounds of their 
conformity. The latter furnifh ftronger arguments 
for fupport, than the former for oppoficion ; the one 
ftronger motives for afitnt, than the other for dif- 
fenfion. If the evil be more than balanced by the 
good, the eftabliihment * is not to be leprobated, 

* No rational man will, I think, deny, ths? a ftate ought to 
guard the moral, with as much tendernefs and vigilance as the 
temporal wtlfare of its fubje&sj to protect their hearts from 
the inroads of vice, with as much circumfpeclion as topveferve 
their property from injuftice, or their lives from deftruction. 
Indeed, that government, which does not attend with fcrupu- 
lous anxiety to the morals of its people, appears to me crimi- 
nally indifferent to their profp^ity, and its own Security. In 
the providential economy of the world, moral and phyficai 
good feem intimately connected ; and, though this wife order 
of the divine government may often elude our fearch, or 
efcape our obfervation, in the affairs of individuals, it is very 
apparent in thole difpenfations which regard the fortune of 
nations. In the vicifiitudes of nations, in their ebbings and 
flowings, their elevations and depreflions, a moral government 
of the world is too ftriking not to be remarked; and, accord- 
ing to the eftablifhed laws of that government, the profperity 
will, generally, be found to bear a certain relative proportion 
to the virtue of any people. Ancient hiftory, and more efpe- 
cially, the divine records of the Old Teftament, will furnifh us 
with many memorable and impreffive examples of this falutary 
truth. Confider the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, the deflruc- 
tion of Nineveh, of Babylon, and of Tyre; the depreflion of 
Egypt, the fubverfion of the Peril an and Macedonian empires; 
the defolation of Jeruialem 3 the dcclenfion and the fall of 



f m ) 

becaufe the good is not greater than it is, or fo great 
"s it might- be * for, of what civil, or what religious 



confular, of imperial, and of papal Rome ! Even the phyfical 
ftate of the atmofphere feems, according to fome fixed but in- 
fcrutable appointment of divine wifdom, to fympathife, if I 
may fo exprefs it, with the moral ftate of man j and where 
fupemiifon has defcribed the malign influences of the planets, 
the operations of genii, or the ravages of demons, the Chrif- 
tian philofopher, who labours to inveftigate the affinities of 
the moral and the natural world, fees awful manifeftatibns of 
the mora! government of God. How any changes in the 
moral, do produce any thing like ccrrefponding changes in the 
natural world, it may be impoffible to explain j.bul hiftory and 
obfervation will furnifh fome finking analogies to countenance 
the fuppofition. Indeed I hardly fee how any fober and con- 
templative man, who has, for the laft few years, compared the 
flate of the earth with the figns in the heavens, the convulled, 
difordered, and corrupt ftate of the nations, with the unwhole- 
fomenefs of the air, the unfruitfulnefs of the feafons, the 
ftorms and tempefts, the droughts and rains, the blights and 
mildew, the dearth, and fever and difeafe, that have prevailed 
in different parts of the world, can doubt but that moral and 
phyfical evil are more clofely connected than is commonly 
imagined. The hifro.y of the Jews (if we fuppofe that hif- 
tory true, and what hiftory is true if that be falfe?) proves the 
intimate connexion fubfifting between the moral and the 
natural world ; we fee the heavens opened or fhut, the feafons 
fruitful or unproductive, the air wholefome or peftilential, the 
land parched with drought or refrefhed with rain, according to 
the righteoufnefs or the .depravity, the moral good or the 
moral evil of the people. And, if there be, at prefent, any 
cQ7mexk?i fubfifting between the moral ftate of man, and the 
natural ftate of the feafons, the air, the earth, and the ocean, 
it is certainly an argument of no fmall weight to prove how 

v 3 



( 294 ' 

inftitutions, that ever exifted in the world, was the 
good produced entirely anfwerable to the expecla- 



important it is for thofe governments which regard the happi- 
nefs of their fubjects, and the profperity of their country, to 
make the interefts of morality a primary object of their policy. 
It does not feem poffible for any government to keep up a 
lively fenfe of moral duty among the great mafs of its fubjects, 
without giving to moral precepts the authoritv of religious 
fanctions, and invigorating the practice by the l of 'reli- 
gious motives. Neither the blandifliments of phile phy, nor 
rhetorical pictures of the beauty of vice or the uglinefs of vir- 
tue, nor even the terrors of penal law, can, independent 
of the motives and fanctions of religion, give flrength and 
energy, animation and conjiancy, to a fenfe of moral duty. 
Without fome aid from the devotional habits of religion, our no- 
tions of moral duty will, notwithstanding the raoft affiduous 
endeavours to prevent it, wither and die ; fall off from the 
heart, and fade from the confeience. 

It is not fo much by a dread of punifliment, as by a fenfe 
of duty, that a good and wife government will labour to check 
the increafe of crimes, and to promote the growth of virtue. 
But can a fenfe of moral duty by any artifice or fop hi ft ry be 
rendered frefh, vigorous, and lafting, without afibciate feelings 
of religious reverence, without any trufl in the being of a God, 

i 

who will reward the righteous, and punim the wicked ? It is this 
perfuafion of thefe truths, that gives ftrength and confifter.cy 
to virtuous conduct ; that makes men fearful to tranfgreis, and 
anxious to do the will of God. Penal laws, for the moll part, 
operate as preventives of evil ; but religious perluafions as in- 
centives to good. The hrft deter from crimes, the laft prompt 
to acts of virtue j perjury and injuftice may be difcouraged by 
the one, but truth, and righteouinefs, and charity, are enli- 
vened by the other. And the influence of religious belief is 
more conftant and permanent than that of penal law. When 



( *9S ) 

tion, to the capacity or the pofllbility? If it be 
objected by Tome fects, that they cannot continue 



a criminal fees the gallows before his eyes, on which fome 
delinquent has paid the forfeit of his crimes, the image may 
imprefs a momentary terror on his heart, but it leaves no 
wholefome impreflion on his confcience. It produces fenla- 
tions of danger, but it does not trouble his foul with a fenfe 
of guilt j it does not excite his abhorrence of moral evil, nor 
, a conviction of moral good. It may generate caution, but it 
does not favour the growth of virtue. Penal laws may be, 
indirectly, but are never directly, beneficial. They contribute 
a negative, not a pofitive quantity, to the fum of moral good- 
nefs. On the other hand, right perfuafions of religious duty 
never deter from evil without inciting to good. They not 
only mow us that we have no intereft in doing evil, but that 
we have a great intereft in doing good. They operate on the 
foul of man by the dread of furfering, and the hope of blifs. 
Taking hold of our ftrongeft feelings, hope on one fide, and 
fear on the other, whofe united ftrength, when combined in 
due proportions, produces the greateft will to act, and the 
greateft energy in action, they operate on the conduct by the 
ftrongeft poffible motives, and render us unwearied in well 
doing. Hence it will, I think, he evident of what vaft and 
inconceivable importance it is, to furnifh fuch a being as man 
with religious motives to moral action. But. is it poilible to 
furnifh religious motives without religious indruction ? and 
how can any ftate diiTeminate religious belief, or fpread reli- 
gious inftruetion among the great mai's of its fubjects. with >ut 
the intermediate aid of an order of men fpeciallv educated for, 
and fpecially devoted to, that important purpofe? As if aware 
of thefe int< refting truths, few have been the governments, 
which hiftory record?, who have not inftituted and n aintained 
a particular clafs of men to keep up the fear of God among 
the people, and to flrengthen the precepts of morality by the 

U 4 






( 2 9 6 ) 

in communion with the Church of England, becaufe 
fhe holds tenets which they deem unfcriptural j may 



fandions of religion. And thofe governments which have not 
been bleflTed with the light of true religion, have, ufually, found 
it expedient to invent a fulfe; and forge divine fanctions 
to give ftability to human inftitutions. Ail religion has for 
its bafis the moral government of God, or, at leatt, fuppofes 
that there are powers above which intereft themfelves in the 
affairs of the world below. Such a perfuanon, whether it be the 
produce of fiction or of truth, muft be falutary; but, in thofe 
countries, in which the will of God has been clearly evinced 
by the glorious light of revelation, it is incumbent on every 
government- to make the truth of that revelation univerfally 
known, and its precepts univerfally refpected. It may be laid, 
that religious truths are fo congenial to the reafon, and reli- 
gious feelings fo entwined around the heart, that the belief 
and the practice of Chriftianity would be as prevalent without, 
as it is with an eftablifhed miniftry. To this, I would anfwer, 
that the fact might poffibly be fo; but, that it probably would 
not ; and that no government feeling a fatherly concern for the 
good of its fubjects, ought to leave a matter of fuch infinite 
importance, as the knowledge of religious truth and moral ob- 
ligation, to uncertainty and accident. And we are to consider 
that it is not only the duty of every government to communi- 
cate religious inftruction to its fubjecls, in order to prevent 
the growth of immorality, but of fuperftition ; that their hearts 
may not be depraved, nor their minds bewildered by religious 
jugglers ; that they may be taught to confider religion, not as 
a topic of contention, but a rule of life ; not as fupplying ali- 
ment for diiTenfion, but motives to righteoufnefs. I (hall be 
told, that religion, being entirely a perfonal concern, indivi- 
duals fhould be at liberty to choofe a religious paftor for them- 
fehes. Enlightened people may do this 5 but are the majorily 
thus enlightened? Are they capable of determining what are 



( * 9 7 } 

we not, without offence, exhort them to confider 
that tc charity is the bond of perfection ," and " the end 



the qualifications bed fuited to a minifter of the gofpel of 
Chrift ? Certainly not. if the religious minifters of the diffe- 
rent parithes throughout the kingdom were appointed by 
the furl rage of the multitude, we mould have all our churches 
filled, not with fober Chriftian teachers, but with brawling 
fanatics and canting hypocrites, who ufually poffefs thofe qua* 
liflcations which are more likely to win the attention, and to 
impofe on the credulity of the multitude. Such preachers, 
inftead of inftrucling the people in moral duty, would caufe 
them to wander far and wide from the ftraight track of corn- 
noon fenfe, till they were loft in the wilds of myftery. Mo- 
rality would be driven, as fome profane and merely nominal 
Chriftians have attempted to drive it, from the Chriftian fanc- 
tuaryj and the religion of Jefus would be evaporated in the 
heat of controverfy, or buried under a mafs of Pharifaic forms. 
The fimple fayings and reafonable decrees of the Chriftian 
lawgiver, would be forgotten in a rigorous devotion to fuper- 
fiitious ordinances j and the milk of the gofpel would be 
converted into the poifon of the afp. 

The Frenc-h philofopbers committed a fignal error in policy, 
and lhewed an aftonifhing ignorance both of the nature and 
the hiftory of man, when they fuppofed that the ftrength of, 
their civil, would be diminiihed, or their purity defiled by an 
alliance with religious inftitutions. Political power is always 
moft ftable and fecure when it refts on the columns of religion. 
Religion, I mean not corrupt, but pure, undefiled religion, ren- 
ders it venerable, and gives it an influence over the public 
will and affections, which nothing elfe can beftow. Jt ferves 
to convert the political into a moral government ; it arms the 
fovereign with a power, in fome meafure, more than human; 
and makes obedience to the civil magiftrate a part of our duty 
to the God of heaven. The Chriftian religion, I am well con- 



( *9* ) 

cf the commandment ;" and that ecclefiaftical peace, 
which is dilturbed by their ichifms and broken by 
their divifions is a part of charity ? 



vinced. does not need the frail flay of civil power j but it is 
quite another thing to fuppofe that a date needs a religious 
eftablifhment, and that religion needs a ftate eftablifhment. 
The latter pofition may be falfe, and the former true; for 
human power and human inftitutions may want the aid of 
religion, though religion may not want their aid. The alliance 
between church and ftate is for the benefit of both; but the 
advantages of the union preponderate greatly in favour of the 
latter. An eftablifhed church muft conduce to the preferva- 
tion of civil liberty. It fpreads over the country jufl and true 
and rational notions of the natural equality of mankind j it 
teaches the prince that, in the eyes of the Father of fpirits, he 
is no greater than the meanefl of his fubjecls j and it tends to 
make the peafant contented by impreffing his fuperiors with 
humility. It rcpreffes the two extremes of behaviour, which 
are equally adverfe to public liberty, abject fervility on the one 
fide, and hard-hearted infolence on the other. It infpires ten- 
ements of independance; it cherifhes in every mind right 
notions of the eftfcntial dignity of human nature ; it brings the 
rich and the poor together, and by teaching them their com- 
mon origin, and their common end, their mutual wants and 
infirmities, their relative dependance on each other, and their 
abfolute dependance upon God, it promotes the growth aDd 
expansion of all the focial virtues, which are the fource of fuch 
a variety of happincis. The remarks, which I have here made, 
on religious eftabltfhments, may be coniidered as fupplementil 
to thofe which 1 have inferred in " Morality united with Po- 
licy - *." At fome future period, if a convenient opportunity 

* I particularly refer the reader to that pamphlet from page 85 line 17, to 
page 91 line iz. 



( 299 ) 

24- If the multiplication of fed: againft feet and 
church againft church keep on increafing in the 
fame rapid ratio in which it has increafed for the laft 
few years, Christians will at laft be fplit into almoft 
as many fects as there are individuals ; and the ge- 
nuine fpirit, and the effential duties of Chriftianity 
will be loft and forgotten under the cloud of their 
diflenfions *. In order, as much as poflible, to flop 
the progrefs and to counteract the mifchief of thefe 
endlefs divifions, let the fpirit of mutual charity and a 
bond of univerfal concord be eftablifhed among Chrif- 
tians of all feels and denominations by this important 
and tranquillizing confideration, that Christianity is 

NOTHING MORE THAN A RULE OF LIFE f j and that, 

(hall occur, I fhall not fhrink from a more full difcufiion of 
this important fubjecl. At prefent I cannot help expreffing 
my ardent wifh, that every national church were founded on 
truly catholic principles, fuch as would allay the jealoufies of 
the fectary, and appeafe the violence of religious animofity. 

* If the well meaning and honed difTenters of different feels 
and opinions fhould, inftead of erecting hoftile churches, think 
it more accordant with the fpirit of Chriftian charity, to af- 
femble themfelves together in the bofom of the Church of 
England, ftrict orders fhould be given to the minifters of the 
eftablifhment never to preach on any uncertain, difputed, and 
unprofitable doctrines 5 but to forfake the fpurious and pole- 
mical, for the genuine practical theology; and to make it their 
primary ftudy to illuftrate and to enforce thefe great Chriftian 
virtues which relate to the government ef the thoughts, the 
affections, and the conduct. 

t See Anti-Calvinift, 2d edit. p. 25—28. Perhaps the 
reader, who may not like to aflent to this moH intereftirtg 



( 3°o ) 

confequently, thofe only are meet to receive the 
favour of God in this world and in the next, who 

conclufion on the authority of the humble curate of Harbury, 
may give it his cordial aflTent when it is prefented to him in 
the words of Dr. Samuel Clarke. " Since," fays this great or- 
nament and fupport of the Englifh proteftant church, " God 
truly and fincerely de fires to make men happy by the exercife 
of virtue ; and frnce that virtue, which is the condition of this 
happinefs, is no other than the practice of thofe great moral 
duties of godlinefs, riglueoufnefs, and temperance, which are 
the eternal and unchangeable law of God j it follows necef- 
farily, that the great a?id ultimate defign r f all true religion can 
be no other than to recommend thefe 'virtues, and to enforce their 
practice. Other things may be helps and ajjijlanccs of religion; 
many external obfervances may, for wife reafons, be pofitively 
commanded ; and may be of exceeding great ufe as means to 
promote devotion and piety: but the life and substance 

OF ALL TRUE RELIGION, THE END AND SCOPE IN WHICH ALL 
THINGS ELSE MUST TERMINATE, CANNOT, POSSIBLY, BE ANY 
OTHER, THAN THE PRACTICE OF THESE GREAT AND ETERNAL 

duties." Clarke's Works, vol. iii. p. 587, 588. 

" The bell definition," fays Jeremy Taylor, '• I can give of 
it (Ghriftianity) is this; It is thf wisdom of God brought 

DOWN AMONG US TO DO GOOD TO MEN." See Supplem. tO 

"Taylor's Sermons, p. 5. That the Christians of the primitive 
times, confidered Chriftianity as nothing more than a rule of 'life , 
the reader will readily di (cover by a peruial of Caves' primitive 
Chriftianity, parts 2 and 3; a book which I once heard very 
ftrenuoufly recommended in a plain, judicious, and unaffrctcd 
charge, delivered to the clergy by the Bifhop of Lichfield and 
Coventry. In Bifhop Watfon's excellent collection of theolo- 
gical tracts, the reader will find, in vol. vi. a work entitled, 
"The Defign of Chriftianity j" which may be perilled with 
advantage by thofe who think that Chriftianity is either fome- 
thing Itfs or fomething more than a rule of life. 



( 30i ) 

fhow greater zeal in running the race of goodnefs 
than the more vain and inglorious race of fpeculative 
altercation. When Chriftians mail embrace and 
hold fad this great reafonable and fcriptural truth, 
to which the diligent ftuJy of the doctrine of Chrirt, 
as it is intimated in the actions of his life, and de- 
clared in the words of his difcourfes, will inevitably- 
lead every honed inquirer -, the different fects of 
Chnllians, feeing the little profit, and feeling the 
great impiety of their mutual contentions, will agree, 
notwithstanding the countlefs variety of their opi- 
nions, to hold the unity of the fpirit in the bond of 
peace. Inftead of fomenting idle and caufelefs 
fchifms in the body of the church of Chrift, and 
needle fs and infiJious feparations from each other, 
they will coalefce into a benevolent and holy union, 
lifting up their hands in the fame houfe of prayer, 
bending their knees at the fame altar, cherifh- 
ing in their hearts the precious recollection of the 
founder of their faith, breathing the true fpirit of 
righteoufnefs, and animated with the flame of uni- 
verfal charity. 

25. Though it be our duty to endeavour, by every 
argument which reafon approves, and every perfua- 
fion which charity fuggefts, to bring all Chriftians 
of all denominations, into the fellowmip of one com- 
munion, we are to ufe no compulfory meafures what- 
ever in order to promote fo defirable an end. Their 
fellowfhip muft not be the effect of force, but the 



( 3°* ) 

fruit of affection ; it muft be voluntary, that it may 
be lading. We have no right whatever to the lead 
dominion over the private judgment of the meaneft 
individual in matters of religion. All attempts to 
fetter the confciences of men is the ufurpation of a 
power, which it is arrogance to claim, and impiety 
to exercife. We are rather to conduit ourfelves 
with gentlenefs towards thofe who oppofe them- 
felves ; we are to bear with the froward, and to Ihew 
patience toward the ftubborn. 

q.6. When Chriftians come rightly to diftinguifh 
the eflentials of true religion from things indifferent, 
they will carefully avoid foolifh and unlearned ques- 
tions, which do gender ftrifes*. The eflentials 
of the pure unfophifticated Chriftian religion confift 
mfoherntfs, right eou[nefs y and godlinefs\ -, to the habi- 
tual exercife of which we are incited by the awful 
profpect of a day of judgment, and the hope of a 
happy immortality. Sobernefs relates to the preven- 
tion of all excefs in the indulgence of our appetites 
and paffions ; to the due obfervation of temperance 
in act and in defire; rigbteoufnefs includes truth and 
juftice, and all thofe duties which cannot be violated 
without wrong being done to others; godlinefs com- 
prehends all our acts and expreffions of rJigious 
adoration; and it more particularly implies the 
imitation of God in the operations of his benefit 

* See 2 Tim. ii 23. f See Tit. ii, 1 1, 12. 



( 303 ) 

cence*. He, therefore, and he only, can be deno- 
minated truly religious, whofe appetites and pafiions, 
whofe mind and afFe&ions, are under the heavenly 
government of temperance, of truth, of juftice, and 
of charity. 

27. If fcbemefs, righteoufnefs, and godlinefs, be the 
only effential p inciples of the true Chriftian religion, 
it will, I think, be found that all feparations are 
groundlefs, and all fchifms contrary to the genius 
and temper of the Chriftian religion, which are not 
occafioned by fome glaring difference of opinion 
refpecting the fanctity of the performance of thefe 
eternal obligations. If Jobernefsy righteoufnefs y and 
godlinefs y if temperance, truth, juftice, and mercy, the 
weighty matters of the Mofaic law, and the weightier 
matters of the Chriftian gofpel, be the caufe for 
which we feparate from any national church, the 
ground of our feparation is well founded, and ought 
to be maintained. Not to feparate for fuch reafons 
is impiety; to feparate on any other account feems 
a want of charity f. 

* True and genuine piety, svospBHX, is the active imitation 
of the goodnefs of God. Hear St. James; " The religion 
which is pure and undefiled before our God and Father is this; 
to take care of orphans and widows in their affliction, and to 
keep one's felf unfpotted from the world." 

f To feparate from any church becaufe the facrament is 
received kneeling inftead of ftanding, or {landing inftead of 
kneeling, becaufe there happens to be a picture of the cruel* 



( 3°4 ) 
28. If any national church authorize orexcufe any 
corruptions, which are contrary to the immutable 
precepts of the moral law, which tend to relax its 
hold on the confcience, or its influence on the life, 
it becomes a duty in every faithful follower "of Chrift 
Jefus to abjure the communion of fuch a church, 
in which fuch immoralities prevail. If any church 
alTume a right to difpenfe with the obligations of 
truth, juftice, and charity, if (he grant fpecial ex- 
emptions from the punifhment due to perjury, to 
injuftice, to brutal cruelty, or brutal lull *, {he be- 
comes an enemy to the glory of God, and the hap- 
pinefs of mankind. She violates her vows, and be- 
trays her trufL Then, the voice of confcience will 
exclaim to us, as it did to our anceftors of old, when 
they renounced the church of Rome, " come out of 
her, my people -, that ye be not partakers of her 
plagues, and drink not of the cup of her abomina- 

fixion over the altar, becaufe the minifter wears a hood cr a 
furplice, or becaufe the fo-m of church difcipline is not accord- 
ing to the Calviniftic reprefentations of primitive leveritVj — to 
feparate for thefe reafons, or reafons fiinilar to thefe, mews 
great imbecility of mind, and great contraction of heart. 

* It is well known that when the corruptions of the Romitri 
church were at their higheti, a licence might be purchafed 
for the commillion of the moll atrocious crimes. I fnall men- 
tion only one in fiance, but a little fearch would eaiilv furnilh 
a thoufand. The Cardinal of St. Lucia re'queiled of Pope Six- 
tus IV. permiliion for himfeif and his family to commit 
****** during the three hot months in the year: to which 
7nocl"jl petition the indulgent father replied, " Fiat ut fctitur" 



( 305 ) 

tions." On fuch occafions, the prefervation of peace 
with a fociety fo polluted and fo polluting, is to be 
facrificed to the vital interefts of righteoufhefs. 

29. But, can it be pretended, with any colouring 
of reafon, even by the mod inveterate enemies of 
the church of England, that her doctrine or her 
prayers, her institutions or her practice, do, in any 
way, difcourage the interefts of real virtue, or the 
practice of real piety? Her errors, whatever may be 
the errors for which fo many abjure her fellowship, 
are not fubverfive of true righteoufnefs and godli- 
nefsj and confequently, are inefficient to jnftify 
their feparation. Though every good and every 
wife man muft fincerely wifh that fuch alterations 
were made in our articles and our liturgy, as to re- 
move every ftone of Humbling and caufe of offence, 
yet, I think, that even at prefent, there is not one 
fingle feet of difTenters, who can, on any broad and 
and liberal principles of reafon or of conscience, 
fquared by the meafures of Chriftian charity, refufe 
to addrefs the great Father of Spirits in our churches, 
and to celebrate the memory of his crucified Son at 
our altars. In the Englifh ritual all the weightier 
matters of religion are powerfully recommended to 
the attention, and impreffed upon the confeience, by 
the moil fublime effufions of devotional piety ; and 
if, on fome myfterious points of faith, all fects can- 
not affent to the tenets of the Englifh church, yet, 
very different opinions on thofe tenets being clearly 

X 



( 3o6 ) 

compatible with the culture and the practice of thefe 
fbvereign Chriftian virtues, fobernefs, righteoufnefs, 
and godlinefs, which are the alone conditions of fal- 
vation, ought neither to alienate their affections from 
her, nor her affections from them. Inftead of 
making every trifling cavil a pretext for dirtenfion, 
the feparatifls from the church of England ou»hc 
rather to forego their prejudices, and to facrifice their 
fcruples, when they are not fortifies relative to -points of 
moral obligation^ in order to preferve the relations of 
amity and good neighbourhood with the eftablifhed 
houfhold of their fellow Chriftians; and to crow 
ftrong in the fpirit, and the practice of that love 
which is the fulfilling of the law. Eager contentions 
about forms that are infignificant, and myfteries that 
are infcrutable, profit nothing ; but> by cherijhing per- 
<ve?fenefs and engendering malignity ', they may bring de~ 
firutlion on the foul; while ecclefiaflical peace, at the 
fame time that it contributes largely to prefent hap- 
pinefs, is one of the modifications of that heavenly 
temper which will cover a multitude of fins*. 



* It mull be confciTed that, without any breach of chari- 
table fuppoiition, there are ftrong reafons for believing that 
many late feparations from the Church of England have not 
originated fo much in honeft fcruples of confcicnce, as in the 
wanton pride of oppofition ; not fo much in the love of truth, 
as the luft of Angularity j not fo much in the fervour of artlefs 
piety, as in the extravagance of a certain wild and prurient 
cnriol:ty. From thefc caufes, and caufes fimilar to thefe, reli- 
gious diilenfions have been be^jun in our towns, and fcattered 



( 307 ) 

• 3°- Some occafions there are, but they will rarely 
occur, in which a diverfity of opinions can reafon- 
ably juftify a diminution of our benevolent regard. 
The opinions of an individual may, indeed, be fo 
hoftile to the bed interefts of fociety, as to give our 
fentiments and affections a tendency to averfion, 
greater than any tendency in our nature to more 



through our villages. Hence has arifen an hoft of fanatics, 
who are grown powerful by our fupinenefs, and ftrong by our 
divisions; and who have lately become objects of fearful appre- 
henfion to the friends of rational Chriftianity, from the increafe 
of their numbers, and the clofenefs of their union. Such ter- 
rors may feem ideal ; but they are ideal only to thofe who 
have not analyfed the genius of fanaticifm ; who have not efti- 
mated its energies, nor calculated its refources. Fanaticifm is 
always dangerous; but when her votaries, inftead of being 
only a few individuals, thinly fcattered over a large expanfe of 
country, incapable of co-operation, and without ftrength to co- 
operate with effect, are condenfed into large mafles in different 
parts of the kingdom; when the detached parts, obeying one 
centre of action, may be made to combine with the greateft 
facility in the moft definitive projects; then the terrors of 
fanatics and fanaticifm are not imaginary. They are not the 
terrors of hobgoblins or apparitions, of ihadows on the wall, or 
of warriors in the fire; they are the terrors of vifible, tangible, 
corporeal realities. The fpirit of fanaticifm, particularly when 
religious emotions give it birth, and the enrapturing vifions of 
eternity increafe the delirium, imparts incredible excitement 
to the phyfical and the moral powers of the individual ; to the 
faculties of the body, and the paffions of the foul; and per- 
haps, one fanatic, thus excited, poflefles greater capacity to do 
mifchief, than can be counteracted by five ordinary men, not 
fo fublixned by airs from heaven, or by blafts from hell. 

X a 



( 308 ) 

benevolent emotions, can counteract. But no opi- 
nions fhould chill our affection towards the indivi- 
dual, but thofe which indicate not only error in the 
judgment, but depravity in the heart; opinions which 
are advcrfe to the virtue and the welfare of ibciety * . 

* It was well l"iid, that one bad maxim is capable of doing 
more mifchief than a hundred bad examples. The influence 
of a bad example is confined to the narrow fphere of agency 
which almoti: every individual occupies. The fpace is very. 
limited in which it can become an object of imitation, or over 
which its baneful influence can be ipread. But one bad 
maxim may diffufe its poifon over a wider circumference} it 
may put in motion an indefinite number of agents, and em- 
brace a vaft extent of attion. It may find admiflion into the 
minds and hearts of thoufands, who may not have fagacity to 
detect its falfehood, to difcern its tendency, or to meafure its 
effects. Made attractive by eloquence, and captivating by its 
favourable appeal to the ftrongeit pailions of human nature, it 
may do mifchief which cannot be calculated, and, perhaps, 
never be repaired. Such a principle as that which is dignified 
with the name of the general good, would, if it were generally 
acted upon, hi the ivay that Mr. Godiv'm recommends, be found 
more definitive to the peace and happineis of the world, than 
all the plagues that ever defolated the earth. 

The wm> morality, as it is called, though its progrefs has been 
checked, and its virulence corrected by the united exertions of 
feveral writers, has, I fear, been the ruin of thoo-fands. It mar 
be agreeable to the tafte, it may be beautiful to the eye, but it 
js no fooner fwallowed than death enfues j the death of every 
principle that is upright or amiable, or praileworthy in the foul 
of man. Falfe theories of religion and of morals, ought to be 
oppofed by every meafure tuhich is cwifijUnt ivith jujiicc a 
rvith charity, but the only force which, in fuch a fervice, we 
can employ with prudence and fuccefs, is the moral force of 



( 3° 9 ) 

31, If we meet with thofe, who think that pro- 
mifes are not binding any longer than while they 



reafon ; and reafon certainly can never be exerted in a caufe more 
agreeable to the will of him, by whom it was bellowed, than when 
it is exerted in the defence of genuine religion and morality. 
The principles of morals, and the truth of religion, can receive 
no lading injury from the fulled and the freed difcufiion. The 
principles of morals are fo fixed in the immutable relations of 
things, and fo congenial to the natural feelings and fympathies 
of human nature* that, though they may be occasionally ex- 
punged from the confeience of individuals, they can never be, 
entirely, erafed from the mind and the heart of the fpecies of 
man. They have been in exigence dnce the world began; 
and they will laft while the world lads. The intrinlic value 
of revelation depends entirely on its truth; and that truth, 
being a well-grounded probability, its approximation to cer- 
tainty can be afcertained only by a fober calculation of the 
weight due to the different arguments which have been, or 
which can be adduced againft it, or in its fupport. When the 
evidences are thus compared with the objections, the degree of 
probability is, in fome meafure, reduced to a definite idea, and 
we fee more didinctly and more forcibly the preponderance of 
the proof. The writers in favour of revelation, are ufually 
redrained, as if by timidity, from dating in a plain and candid 
manner, the objections of their adverfaries. Are thefe writers 
fearful of the ground on which they tread ? Have they any 
fecret fufpicion, any lurking dread that Chridianity is an illu- 
fion ? Do they not know that objections againd the truth of 
Chridianity, if they are weak, will give it drength ; and that, 
if they are drong, they will have the fame effect, if they can 
be fubverted by arguments which are dronger. Chridianity 
is not valuable only becaufe it is imagined to be truej but 
becaufe it is actually true j and the actual truth can be made 
known only by a full, and fair, and unreferved inveftigation 

x 1 



( 3 l ° ) 

have an intereft in keeping them ; that gratitude for 
benefits received is not to be cherimed * that reduc- 
tion is no fin ; and that chaftity may be violated as 
often as any wayward appetite prompt to the vio- 
lation ; we are not to fuffer a falfe delicacy, or a 
fpurious politenefs, to prevent us from flighting their 
intercourfe, and fhunning their fociety. In imita- 
tion of our Divine Matter, we may, and ought, not 
only not to refufe, but to feek ad million into the 
company of the profligate, when there feems a fair 
probability of reclaiming them by counfel, or of 
relieving them by charity; but when we poflfefs no 

of the whole evidence. If Chriftianity be true, no arguments 
can overturn it; they can only make the degree of the proba- 
bility more definite; and the more definite the probability is, 
the better will people in general be able to eftimate the danger 
of not making its precepts the rule of their conduct, and the 
ftandard of their intereft. If the accumulated objections againft 
the truth of Chriftianity can be proved, as I am of opinion 
that they might be proved, by a fair comparifon of the num- 
ber and weight of oppofing probabilities, to be only as —, 
then the probable truth, or the approximation to certainty in 
the evidences of revelation, would be as - 9 - 2 , or there would be 
ninety nine chances in favour of the truth to one againft it. 
Would not fuch an argument, fully made out, and perfpi- 
cuoufly ftated, have a great influence on the private and the 
public conduct, on the thoughts and actions of mankind ? 
Would they be fo ready to do evil in thought, word, or deed, 
when they were convinced that there were fo many probabi- 
lities in favour of a future judgment, when every fecret thing 
fhall be revealed, and men fhall receive according to the mea- 
fure of their righteoufnefs ? 



( 3" > 

power to do, or fee no chance of doing them any 
moral or phyfical good, the love of virtue will caufe 
us to fhun the ways in which they walk, and the 
houfe in which they dwell. To live in habits of 
familiarity with men, who contemptuoufly deride or 
violate the known laws of God, is to countenance 
their principles, and to be accefTary to their impiety. 

32. It is a falfe notion that a man's conduct is 
not, in moil cafes, aiVimilated to his opinions. If 
the principles and the practice of men be often at 
variance, they will, I truft, be found more often to 
agree. But, as we mark the variations more than 
the agreement, we are too apt to draw general con- 
clufions from particular facts, and to imagine that 
a man's conduct is not regulated by his princi- 
ples, becaufe it does not accord with them in all in* 
fiances* A good man may occasionally act. wrong; 
and a bad man may occasionally act right. But if 
a man's heart and confcience be imprefTed with right 
notions of moral obligation, his actions will, in a 
great majority of cafes, accord with his opinions. 
He will adhere to what he deems morally good, and 
fhun what he thinks morally evil. But, if a perfon 
really believe the obligations of truth, juftice, gra- 
titude, chaftity, to be only empty names, and not 
binding on the confcience \ what fruits can we expect 
to be the product of fuch opinions ? Mult we not 
expect to find favours received without thankfulnefs, 

X 4 



/ 



( 3** ) 

promifes broken without reluctance, juflice violated 
without remorfe, and chaftity without fhame ? 

23- To greet with the fmile of affection, or the 
right hand of friendfhip, men profeffing opinions 
inimical to the interefts of religion and morality, is 
to lend our individual aid to counteract the public 
opinion *, by which they are oppofed. Public opi- 
nion, when wifely directed, is one of the ftrongeft 
barriers which virtue poffcffes againft the inroads of 
vice; for, hardened indeed mud: be the offender, who 
can endure the general difapprobation of his fellow- 
creatures. Thofe violations of the will of God, or 
of the decencies of fociety, againft which the public 
opinion fets fo ftrong, that he who commits them 
becomes the theme of public reproach, and the mark 
of public fcorn, will always be lefs frequent than 
they would be if no fuch difcouragement operated 
in favour of their prevention. 

34. Some offences are, perhaps, punifhed more 
feverely, and prevented more effectually by the 
public difapprobation, than by any other mode of 
punifhment, or means of prevention. Public dif- 
approbation condemns the culprit to the w T orft kind 
of folicude. It renders him, in a meafure, folitary 

* The ftate of public morals may generally be afcertalned 
by the ftate of the public opinion refpedting any particular 
violations of moral duty. 



( 3*3 ) 

in the confluence of foeiety; and his fufFerings arc 
more excruciating than if he were placed in a defert, 
barren of inhabitants, where he could trace no foot- 
fteps but his own ; but where he could not read in 
the countenance of others the fentence of his con- 
demnation * ! 

35. The feeling of fhame is for the mod part a 
painful confcioufnefs of degradation in the eyes of 
others ; a confcioufnefs of inferiority deierved, and 
brought on ourfelves by the contempt of rules, to 
which we ouojit to have conformed our conduct. 
And this feeling is the ufual afTociate of thofe actions, 
which, being contrary to the public opinion, expe- 
rience the public difapprobation ; for, if thefe very 
actions, inftead of being the objects of pubiic aver- 
fion, were the topics of public praife, they would 
in all cafes, be perpetrated with lefs reluctance, and 
often with perfect felf- approbation. 

36. Self- approbation has, u/iially, Jome reference to 
the approbation of others. In fome licentious com* 
panies, an unprincipled man will boaft, with no 
fmall degree of felf- approbation, of the number of 
virtuous women he has feduced. In this cafe, the 
felf-complacency which the perfon feels in recount- 
ing the fuccefs of his rtratagems, or the fkilfulnefs 
of his addrefs, is, in a great meafure, occafioned by 

* See Adam Smith's Moral Sentiments, y. i. p, 210, 6th ed. 



( 3*4 ) 

the applaufes of his aflbciates. Bur, place the fame 
man in any company where a juft fenfe of moral 
rectitude prevails; not one around him will fympa- 
thize with the vain recital of his guilty pleafures; 
not one will echo the filthy jeft, or applaud the 
wanton tale. Inflead of the fmiles of bafe congra- 
tulation, he will fee on every forehead the frown of 
abhorrence, and in every eye the flafh of indignation. 
Hardened, indeed, muft he be in iniquity, if, in fuch 
a fituation, fome emotions of fliame do not agitate 
his heart; and though his countenance may not be- 
tray any outward figns of remorfe, yet certain it is, 
he will experience a fecret, inward ielf-difTaiisfaction. 
There will be a fenfation of fclf-loathing ; a painful 
feeling of unworthinefs ! 

37. Thefe confederations fhew how important it 
is for individuals, who regard the welfare of fociety, 
and who confider juft notions of religion and virtue 
neceflary to the peace and the happinefs of the world, 
not to encourage, directly or indirectly, by their ap- 
probation avowed or implied, any actions, or any 
principles, which are adverfe to genuine religion 
and found morals, to the endearing charities, or even 
the elegant decencies and modefi proprieties official life, 



RELIGION WITHOUT CANT. 



The Genius of Chrijiian Charity. 






I. X hat part of piety which regards our duty 
towards each other, is comprehended in two words ; 
juftice and charity. Juftice and charity united, 
conftitute the perfection of morality; and the obli- 
gations of both are contained in that golden rule, 
which tells us to do to others what we would that 
others mould do unto us. We cannot experience 
injuftice or inhumanity, without fenfations of pain and 
averfion ; nor can we.acl: unjuftly or cruelly towards 
others, without their feeling as we fhould feel in the 
like circumftances. As this law of the gofpel teaches 
us to make our perceptions of fuffering, or fenfations 
of mifery, the ftandard by which we eftimate the 
fufFerings of our fellow-creatures, it fhows us how, 
in the beft poflible manner, to refrain from every 
violation of juftice and humanity; and, at the fame 
time, by enjoining us, in the varied tranfa&ions of 
life, to place ourfelves in the fituation of our neigh- 



( 3«« ) 

bour, it perfuades us not to be regnrdlefs of his 
happinefs and intereft, when we are purfuing our 
own. It identifies the relative obligations of juftice 
and charity in the mindj and it confecrates their 
union in the heart. 

2, Juftice and charity are the fubftance of the 
law and the prophets. They are the pillars, on 
which the great fabric of piety is erected; and which 
mud inevitably crumble into duft when they are 
taken away. For, once erafe juftice and charity 
from the duties of religion, and what will religion be 
but a mifchievous fuperftition ? The practice, there- 
fore, of juftice and of charity, are the moft efTential 
parts of religion. They are the fundamental prin- 
ciples of that law which God hath written on the 
confeience of man, and eftablifhed iri the gofpel of 
Chrift. 

3. The duty of charity is more often mentioned, 
and more (Irenuoufly inculcated in the gofpel, than 
that of juftice, becaufe charity cannot exift where 
juftice is violated. When, then, our Lord and his 
apoftles, infift on the obligations of charity, they 
always ftippofe that thofe of juftice are already ful- 
filled. Charity, as it is the greater duty, neccflarily 
includes juftice, which is the lets. For this reafon, 
charity is called in fcripture the bend < eft, 
becaufe it contains in its capacious bofom all thole 
duties in which true ri^hteoufnefs confttls; while its 



( 3'7 ) 

prefence gives them a luftre in the eye of man, and 
a favour in the fight of the Father of Spirits, which 
they could not otherwife poffefs. 

4. Charity is, as it were, the funfhine of moral 
excellence; it gives it radiance and beauty; it in* 
vigorates its growth, and multiplies its fruits. Thus, 
St. Paul, defcribing the comprehenfive efficacy of 
charity, fays, " all the law is fulfilled in one wo?d>— 
thou Jhalt love thy neighbour as thy f elf" Gal. v. 14. 
In another place he fays, " he that loveth another, 
hath fulfilled the law" Rom. xiii. and the reafon is, 
that £C love worketh no ill to his neighbour-, therefore 
love is the fulfilling of the law." Rom. xiii. 10. Cha- 
rity excludes all moral corruption; adultery, murder, 
injuftice, falfe witnefs, covetoufnefs, every evil 
thought, and every malevolent defire. 

5. Our Lord, on being afked which was the great 
commandment in the law, anfwered, Thou malt love 
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all 
thy foul, and with all thy mind ; this is the fir ft and 
great commandment; and the fecond is like unt.o it ; 
Thou jhalt love thy neighbour as thyfelf On thefe two 
conrmaitdmentrhang all the law and the "prophets. Matt, 
xxii. 37 — 40. Here, it is well worth our obferving, 
that Jefus makes the love of our neighbour and the 
love of God one and the fame indivinble principle 
of piety. He fays, <c the Je.cond commandment is like 
unto thefirft ;" thus he makes charity not an advenii- 



( 3«S ) 

tious party but the fubfl mice of true religion* He fup- 
pofcs that the love of God cannot exiil in the foul 
apart from the love of mankind. Genuine charity, 
therefore, is genuine adoration; and the worfhip that 
is offered to the Father of Spirits, is acceptable only 
when it is breathed from a heart which benevolence 
warms with its prefence, and hallows with its flame. 

6. Charity is denominated the bond of perfeclne/s, 
bccaufe it contains, in one word, the fubftance of 
the two tables of the decalogue. The firft table of 
the commandments is incomplete without the fe- 
cond ; the firft table points to the fountain; the laft 
exhibits the beneficent effects of true religion. The 
firft exclaims glory to God ; the laft pronounces 
good-will to man ; but charity, pure and undefiled, 
embraces both tables; it bows to God while it em- 
braces man; it gives honour to the firft, while it 
does good to the laft; it places its hopes in the 
heavens above, while it fti ives to diminifh the mifery 
of the earth below. 

7. Charity is the perfection of godlinefs. As God 
does not need our homage, as he is not glorified 
by our prayers, nor benefited by our devotion, he 
commands our worihip, that it may, by producing 
juft notions of our dependance on his will, make us 
poor in fpirit; and, by exciting a juft fenfe of his 
goodnefs, render us kind in heart. The end of 
thankfgiving is to melt us with companion, and to 



( 3i9 ) 

increafe our fympathy for the wants of others. Thus 
the worfhip of God tends to infpire the fpirit of 
benevolence ; and thus charity is the perfection of 
godlinefs ; without which the adoration of God is 
vain ; which is the beft hymn of praife for his good- 
nefs, and the beft fong of thankfgiving for his 
mercies. 

8. Charity is the perfection of juftice. Juftice 
confifts in giving to every one his due; charity im- 
parts to others that which belongs to itfelf, and to 
which others have no juft claim. Juftice teaches us 
to do no wrong to our neighbour; charity excites us 
to do him all the good in our power. Juflice con- 
fifts in preventing mifery; charity has a direct ten- 
dency to promote happinefs. Juftice regards only 
the obligations of ftrict right; charity confults the 
fofter obligations of humanity. Charity is gratui- 
tous ; juftice is compulfory. The laws of fociety 
may force us to be juft ; but chanty is a matter of 
difcretion. Juftice is the fatisfaclion of a debt; 
charity the conferring of a favour. Juftice ma'y 
produce veneration; but charity conciliates love. 
Juftice may fatisfy the confcience ; but charity cauJes 
hope and joy and tranfport in the foul. Juftice 
deferves the meed of human refpect; but to chanty 
more efpecially belongs the promife of eternity. 
Juftice receives the applaufe of the wife and the 
good on earth ; but charity furvives the grave, and 
will be welcomed into heaven by the hofannas of 
angels. 



C 320 ) 

9. Charity, in fcripture, denotes the external a<5b 
of beneficence, and the internal principle from which 
thofe acts fpring, and without which, they are vain. 
By the internal principle of charity I mean the love 
of God ; which is the true benevolent principle, alive 
and vigorous in the foul, diffufing its influence over 
the whole furface of the affections, and warming the 
very core of our hearts. It is this principle of cha- 
rity which produces patience and meeknefs ; that fweet 
complacency of manner with which vanity is never 
mingled, and which envy does not canker; that fen- 
fitive, affectionate fympathy with the feelings, the 
interefxs, with the hopes and fears, the joys and for- 
rows of our fellow-creatures, which befpeaks the 
abfence of every unkind thought and every male- 
volent fenfation. This is the true charity, which 
never faileth ; and which may flourifh in the heart 
in all fituations and circumftances ; in the ftorm of 
misfortune, and the funfaine of profperity. 

10. Charity is that love of God, which excludes 
all doubt concerning his providential care; and 
which, confequently, generates refignation under fuf- 
fering, equanimity in danger, and hope in affliction. 
To charity belongs that fenfe of dependance upon 
God, which produces humility of foul ; that con- 
fcioufnefs of his protedtion, which, makes us feel 
that vengeance is his ; which renders us placable 
when we have been offended, and eager to mStkc 
reflitution when we have given offence. To charity 



C 321 ) 

belong thofe exalted notions of the great Father of 
the univerfe, who maketh his fun to ihine and his 
rain to fall upon the juft and the unjuft; which make 
us willing to return blefTing for reproach, and to do 
good, even where we have received evil. This is 
that charity, without wnich, even the tongue of 
angels would be but as a founding brafs, or a tink- 
ling cymbal ; without which, though we had faith fo 
that we could remove mountains, we fhould be as 
nothing. 

11. The charity which is fo highly extolled by 
St. Paul, in the thirteenth chapter of his firfl epiftle 
to the Corinthians, as the fummit of Chriftian per- 
fection, and the crown of moral excellence, does not 
belong exclufively either to the mean or to the noble, 
to the poor or to the rich. A man may be opprefTed 
with want, without a mite to beftow in alms, and 
yet be animated with the flame of a purer charity 
than he, who, having thoufands, lavishes them on 
others with indifcriminate prjfuienefs. A man may 
even give his body to be burned for the benefit of 
others, and beftow all his goods to feed the poor; 
and yet, wanting the true principle of chanty, may 
fail of his reward. 

12. Actions, apparently the moil generous, and 
exertions of beneficence the mod extenfive, ftriking 
the mind with admiration, and imprefiing the heart 
with gratitude, may fpnug from motives which true 

Y 



C 322 ) 

charity difclaims. The dream may look clear, and 
yet fome deftru&ive mixture may be diflblved in 
the waters ; the air may fcem pure and refrefhing, 
when fome peftilential vapour floats in every gale. 
Vanity or malignity> the advancement of fome tempo- 
ral end, or the indulgence of fome unlicenfed dtrfire, 
may lurk at the bottom of the mod fplendid efforts 
of human charity. He, who mould endow alms- 
houfes or build hofpitals, as he would erect temples 
or grottos, merely to gratify his vanity, or to attract 
the gaze and admiration of the world, is not rich in 
charity towards God. That charity which is de- 
figned for a public fhow, is charity reviled. It wants 
that elementary principle of religious love which 
confecrates its worth. The very oftentatioufhefs of 
beneficence may give it a value, and gain it a cur- 
rency among men ; but it is the fecret Rift which is 
moft acceptable to God. He values not the offering 
of him who is panting for the noify breath of praile, 
fo much as that alms which is beftovved in filence, 
and is bellowed by him who looks not to man for 
his recompence. Our Saviour flrongly forbad his 
difciplcs to make vanity the groundwork of their 
beneficence, by this forcible injunction, Let not thy 
left hand know what thy right hand doeth. He made 
the love of God, as the father of mankind, the foun- 
tain of charity; that we might do good to each 
other, not to obtain the applauie of men, which is 
vapid and tranficnt, but to conciliate his favour, 
which is everlafling. 



( 3*3 ) 

13. When the love of God is the root of charity, 
it excludes every evil thought and every malevolent 
fenfation. Genuine charity, therefore, whether re- 
garded as a fingle act 3 or an accumulation of ads 
wrought into a habit, is inleparable from a benevo- 
lent (rate of the affections. He would not be truly 
charitable, who mould make fuch a facrifice of felfc- 
love, as to give his body to be burned for the fake 
of fome, while he cherifhed any ill-will in his heart 
towards others. Charity loves its friends; but cha- 
rity is not vindictive towards its enemies. It pro- 
motes the intereu: of the one; but without obftruct- 
ing the welfare of the other. It fmothers its ani- 
mofities ; (tifles its refentments ; it feeds its enemy 
when he is hungry; fuccours him when opprefTed; 
and refrefhes him when faint. 

14. Acts of beneficence are fpurious, where the 
malevolent principle is not extinguiflied. One (ingle 
act of charity, performed when the fpirit of forgive- 
nefs has got entire poffefilon of the heart, afcends to 
the throne of mercy with a fragrance more fweet, 
and an influence more availing, than a thoufand alms 
which are beftowed when one malevolent wifh refts 
brooding on the foul, or one particle of rancour pol- 
lutes the heart that pities, or the hand that gives. 
The mite of the widow was accepted more than all 
the coftly offerings of the rich, becaufe the bene- 
volent principle that prompted the act was (Ironger 
in her foul than it was in theirs. In her no bitternefs 

Y 2 



( 3*4 ) 

was to be found ; the love of God reigned fole So- 
vereign of her mind ; breathing on evcrv thought 
fhe entertained, and every defire fhe cherifhed, 
good-wiil unfeigned, and charity undcfiled. 

15. Let no man, therefore, vainly fuppofe that he 
is excufed, or can be exempted by the meannefs of 
his condition, or the penury of his circumftances, 
from the obligations of Chriftian charity. That 
immortal principle of benevolence, without whofe 
Sanctifying prefence all external acts of beneficence 
are, in the fight of God, nothing worth, may be 
cherifhed in as much purity, and burn with as much 
luftre, in the affections of the peafant, as of the 
prince. Though the poor man may not have it in 
his power to beftow one mite upon one fuffering 
fellow creature, yet it is in his power to exercife that 
charity, " which fuffereth long, and is kind, which doth 
not behave itjelf unjeemly, which is not erfily provoked, 
which thinketh no evil-" that charity, in fliort, which 
preferves the mind from pollution, and prevents the 
heart from being cold; which cleunfes the thoughts 
of the one, and mollifies the fenfations of the other. 

16. Wherever wealth gives the means, there no 
plea can exempt from the exertions of actual bene- 
ficence. Where providence has provided the re- 
sources, there nothing can privilege us from thofe 
Specific acts of charity, by which the wants of the 
poor are relieved ; by which the naked are clothed, 



C 325 ) 

and the hungry fed ; by which the fatherlefs are 
comforted, and the widow's heart is made to fing 
for joy. Thefe are the fruits which the genuine 
benevolent principle will always produce, wherever 
it finds a foil capable of their production. Thefe 
a;e the fruits, by which it will delight to mow its 
life, and to manifefl its reality. He, who is warmed 
with the fpotlefs flame of Chriftian benevolence, will 
not only do good, but will take pleafure in doing it. 
He will not eftimate his own enjoyments like the 
felfifh man, by their exclufivenefs ; he will appre- 
ciate them by the degree in which they are made 
fubfervient ro the enjoyments of others; he will mea- 
fure his happ'nefs by the happinefs which he im- 
parts, and the m.fery which he alleviates. He will 
not drive to engrofs, but to diffufe blifs; and the 
pleafurable fenfations that thrill in his own bofom 
will' be increafed in proponi >n to the number of 
prrfons with whom they a.e (hartd, and the wide- 
nels of the furface over which they are fpread. 

17. The object of our acts of charity is our neigh- 
bour ; a name, of which the fignification is fomewhat 
different under the Mofaic and the Christian difpen- 
fations. Under the former, it more particularly de- 
noted an Kraelite, a cerfon of the fame religion and 
nation ; though, on fome occafions, it was extended 
to the ftranger, the fatherlefs, and the widow of other 
countries. But, under the Chrivtian difpenfation, 
the diftinctions of Jew and Gentile are abolifhed, 

Y 3 



( 3^6 ) 

and ail national differences done away. The term 
neighbour, therefore, as it is employed in the new 
covenant, has no partial, no local, nor circumfcribed 
meaning; but relates, as we may infer from the 
parable of the good Samaritan, to every individual 
among the fcattered thoufands of mankind, who 
wants our relief, and whom we can relieve. 

1 8. The God of the Chriftians is no refpecler of 
perfons; but, in every nation, he that feareth him, 
and worketh righteoufnefs, is accepted with him. 
Acts x. 34, 35. Under the difpenfation of the gof- 
pel there is no invidious diftinction made between 
Jew and Greek, bond and free, male and female ; 
for we are ail one in Chrift Jefus, See Gall. vi. 28. 
But though, according to the Chnftian fcheme, there 
is no diftinclion between perfons, places, and nations, 
though there is neither Jew nor Greek, circumcifion 
nor uncircumcifion, bond nor free, but Cnrift is all 
in alh though Chriftian charity, animated by the 
enlarged views of the founder of Chriftianity, will 
embrace all who want its fuccour; yet, in its actual 
operations, it will make thofe wife and prudent dif- 
tinctions between kindred and flrangers, friends and 
enemies, which the genius of Chrillianity does not 
difclaim ; and to which we are impelled by the dic- 
tates of realbn, and the fympathies of humanity. 

19. The glow of univerfal philanthropy will be 
warm and vigorous in every Chriftian heart ; and he 



( 3*7 ) 

is no Chriftian, whofe bofom is infenfible to its ani- 
mated and animating flame. But, as the means of 
actual charity, even in the moft opulent individuals, 
are fcanty indeed compared to the aggregate of hu- 
man woe, fo it is neceffary for every individual, in 
the diftributions of beneficence, to pay a more efpe- 
cial regard to the ties of family and of kindred, of 
friend (hip, of religion, and of country. Where other 
circumftances are the fame, and where, in other re- 
fpects, the degree of want or the claims to com- 
panion may be equal, thefe ties are rational grounds 
of preference, which it is inhumanity to violate, and 
impiety not to reverence. Thefe grounds of pre- 
ference we are not contemptuoufly to deride, but 
affectionately to cherifh •, not coldly to neglect, but 
diligently to obferve; as we are connected with each 
other by the endearments of blood and friendfhip, 
or the more diftant affinities of a common religion, 
or a common country. 

20. We cannot do good to all men ; we muft, 
therefore, be contented with doing good to indi- 
viduals ; and, in fnccouring the wants, relieving the 
neceffities, promoting the interefts, or alleviating the 
miferies of individuals, we mud pay a juft attention 
to the ftrength of their refpective claims. We mud 
regard the degree of their relationship, and, if I may 
fo exprefs it, of their proximity to our affections; 
and, often, even to our homes. In the diftributions 
of beneficence, we are to regard thofe firft who are 

Y 4 



( 3*8 ) 

poor and deftitute in our own family j then amoncr 
our friends; then among our acquaintance. We are 
to iuccour a difheffed citizen of our own country 
bet >re a foreigner, and a Chriftian ihould relieve a 
fuifcriiig Chriftian before a fuffering Heathen. 

21. That boafted practice of univerfal philan- 
thropy, which has been extolled as the pe rfr^ion of 
morals, is vain in theory, and impoflible in practice. 
He who forgets the fiifFcring individuals to whom 
nature or iy.i pathy has given a claim on his affec- 
tions, while he is vainly attempting to embrace a 
wider fphere of beneficence, or is fpeculating on 
fome airy fcheme of univerfal good, is like a man 
who fhould abandon the wife of his bofom, or the 
friend of his heart, to perifh with hunger, while he 
vainly attempted to convey food to all the nations 
on the globe, by featuring a few bafkets of bread 
upon the ocean. 

22. Chriftianity, wifely attending to the narrow 
limits of our capacity, and to the vaft fum of human 
wants, enjoins us, not only, as far as we have oppor- 
tunity, to do good unto all men-, but, especially, unto 
them who are of the houfhold of faith. While it 
enjoins us to do univerfal good in the degree in 
which we are capable cf doing it, it does not fanc- 
tion the illufions of promifcuous benevolence. It 
orders us to attend to the diftinctions of family and 
religion. We are to calculate the claim upon our 



(-3*9 ) 
eompaflion not only by the degree of diftrefs, bat 
by the degree of relation and affinity. 

23. As the apoftle tells us more especially to do good 
to thofe, who are of the houfehold of faith y we fhould 
beware not to make this exhortation a pretext for 
cherifhing religious animofity. Though we are to 
prefer thofe who profefs the Chriftian faith to thofe 
by whom it is oppofed, yet we are not to foiter a 
narrow fpirit of fectarian antipathy and bitternefs. 
We are not only to cherifh fentiments of regard for, 
but are to live in habits of amity with all Chriflians 
of all fects and denominations, however diflimilar 
their modes of worfhip or of dodlrine may be from 
our own, as long as their tenets are not repugnant to 
the genius, or their lives do not reflect a Jcandal on the 
frofeffion of Chrifiianity. 

24. Though thofe who profefs the Chriftian re- 
ligion will generally have a claim to our fympathy, 
and 3 if diftrefied, to our alms, fuperior to thofe who 
do not profefs it, we are not to permit our zeal for 
Chrifiianity to make us indifferent to the happinefs or 
to the interefts of the reft of mankind. Though 
Chrifiianity, by incorporating us as members of the 
fame body, under one head, Chrift Jefus, has formed 
a clofe bond of relationfhip among Chriftians j yet we 
are to remember that Chrifiianity was not jent to make us 
aliens from the great and univ erf al family of mankind. — 
We are to confider that God made of one blood, 



( 33° ) 

all nations that dwell on the face of the whole earth ; 
and that, confequently, we are not to look with fullen 
averfion or malignant fcorn on the followers of Con- 
fucius or of Mahomet. We are to love without hy- 
pocrify, even Jews, Turks, and infidels* we are to 
behold with a compaffionating regard all thoie, who, 
in the blindnefs of their minds, or in the folly of 
their hearts, bow the knee to idols made of wood 
and (lone ; or who worfhip the fun by day and the 
moon by night. We are to pray, with that fervor 
of charity, which will give to the fupplications of 
man the eloquence of cherubim or feraphim, that 
fuperflition may be banifhed from the earth -, that 
all mankind may at lad come into one fold, under 
one fliepherd, Jefus Chrift the Lord. 

25. Chriftianity, though it directs the free and 
unreftrained exercife of the benevolent affections, 
requires them to be exercifed in their due order and 
cherifhed in their due proportions. Our affections, 
as if by a law of our nature, gravitate mod forcibly 
toward thofe with whom we have the clofefl com- 
munion of intereits and fenfations ; in whofe good 
or bad fortune, in whofe joys or forrows, we are in 
fome meafure perfonally concerned. The intercfts 
and fenfations of our relations, of our parents, our 
wives, our children, are moll nearly identified with 
our own. Their profperity or adverfity, their fick- 
nefs or their health, come, if I may lb exprefs it, 
more in contact with our feelings, than the profperity 

3 



( 33i ) 

or the adverfitv, the ficknefs or the health of others. 
Hence they have and ought to have a ftronger hold 
on our affections, than thofe, in the variation of 
whofe circumfUnces, or interefts, or fenfations, we 
are lefs concerned. 

26. Affections are generally the ftrongeft where 
the reciprocations of pleafure and pain are the mod: 
frequent, where they are the fooneft excited and 
the mod forcibly fcit. Hence, in mod cafes, accord- 
ing to the common courfe of nature, which it has 
often '>een the aim of metaphyfical fubtilty to invert, 
or of falfe philofophy to deftroy, the reciprocations 
of pleafure and pain muff, generally be more frequent, 
and comequcntly more forcible, between kindred 
than betwten friends, between friends than between 
ftrangers> between the inhabitants of the fame town 
than the inhabitants of the fame country, between 
the inhabitants of the fame country than foreigners, 
between fubjects of the fame government than thofe 
of a different, between members of the fame, than 
thofe of a contrary communion. 

27. The power of what I call the reciprocations of 
pleafure and pain in producing affection, and in in- 
vigorating it when produced, is very vifible in the 
growth of maternal love. The mother who fuckles 
her child at her own bread:, and often fondles it in 
her own arms, who watches its fleeping and its wak- 
ing hours, who plays with it in health and tends it 



( 3«* ) 

in ficknefs, has alwavs a warmer and Wronger affec- 
tion tor it, than that more un latural mother, who 
commits her offspring to be reared at the bread and 
nurild in the arms of a drang"r. The affection of 
the firiL has a fource of drength and a means of in- 
creafe which the other wan;s. The one reciprocates 
more with the pleafjres and the pains of its child 
than the other. 

28. Where ftrength of benevolence is mod 
wanted, there Providence has taken mod care to 
favour its production ; to render its growth mod 
eafy and its increafe mod certain. We fee this, par- 
ticularly in the aff clion between parents and chil- 
dren} for the 1 elation between parents and children 
occafions fuch a continual reciprocation of pleafures 
and pains, of Iv^pes and fears, of joys and forrows, 
fuch an unremitted interchange of fympathies, as 
muft neceiTaiily produce parental love on one fide, 
and filial on the other. Family love was intended 
as a day to the helpleflhefs of individuals, as a ftaff 
to the aged and a pillow to the young ; as a fuccour 
to the indigent, and a confolation to the miferable. 
Strength of benevolent affe&ion is therefore highly 
neceflary among kindred ; and the providential dif- 
poficions of nature tend to plant it in our boloms, 
and to fix it in our hearts. It begins in the early 
intercourfe of brothers and fillers, and it is gradually 
diffufed to the remotcd branches of relationfhip. 
Brothers and Oilers foon learn to iympathize with 



C 333 ) 

each others wants and embarraffments. Their fuf- 
ferings, their pains and pleafures are often mutual ; 
and the happinefs of the one is generally affrciated 
with that of the other. Hence, by degrees, they 
learn to feel for and with each other, in circum- 
fiances in which there could be no participation of 
actual fuffering between them ; in circumftances, in 
which fympathy could not be prompted by felfifhnefs, 
or by any dread of wanting the aid we give, and the 
confolaticn we be (low. 

29. The feeds of kindred love, which are fown in 
the nurfery, when properly cultured, fpring up into 
a tree of luxuriant verdure and {lately growth, from 
which depend the bloffoms arid the fruits of all the 
benevolent affections. Though kindred love may 
be contracted in its expanfion, nipped in its buds, 
or withered in its leaves, by injudicious management 
or unpropitious circumftances ; yet it is a plant of lo 
hardy a nature, and the circumftances of life in which 
we muft be placed do neceflarily fo favour its pro- 
duction, it takes fuch deep root in the heart, and 
fpreads its fibres fo clofelv over the furface of the 
affections, that there is rarely a bofom on which it 
has not made fome imprefiions or on which it exerts 
no influence. 

30. There can hardly help being more frequent 
reciprocations of pleafure and pain, ftronger affocia- 
tions and fympathies, and confequently ftronger af- 



<( 334 ) 

fections between relations than between ftrangers* 
The interefts and fenfations of kindred muft come 
more into contact with our own than thofe of per- 
fons not allied to us by blood, nor connected with us 
by intercourfe. Family love commonly fjws the 
firft feeds of benevolence, which are afterwards ma- 
tured into all the focial virtues. 

31. Before the benevolent affections can flourifh, 
the fclfi Ti principle mud be brought under proper 
regulations. The felfih principle counteracts the 
growth of the benevolent affections j and the bene- 
volent affections abate the rancour and prevent the 
increafe of the felfifh principle. The more our in- 
terefts are, as it were.; divided, the more the fenfations 
of our hearts are communicated to others ; and the 
more the fenfations of others vibrate in our own, the 
lefs we are abforbed in the purfuit of exclufive gra- 
tifications. Family love makes the firft divificn in our 
interefts and fenfations, by mingling them with the in- 
terefts and fenfations of others, 

32. The maturation of the benevolent principle 
is greatly affiled by marriage, by friendfhip, and 
fociety ; till the foul, animated with the flame of be- 
nevolence, is difpofed to fympathize with the interefts 
of all mankind. Marriage, on Chriftian principles, 
in a more efpecial manner encourages the expan- 
fion of the benevolent affections. It weakens the 
force of the felfilh principle, by making our own 



( 335 ) 

intereft one and indivifible with that of another; and 
when it gives. birth to children, it ftill farther pro- 
motes the increafe of benevolence, by rendering 
our intereft one and the fame with that of many 
others. The benevolent principle will, in general, 
for thefe reafons be feldom found fo ftrong in un- 
married as in married people. 

33. Friendfhip is another foil very genial to the 
growth of the benevolent affections, and, indeed, 
true friendfhip never warmed a heart that true be- 
nevolence did not warm. True benevolence gives 
birth to the moft fincere, the moft ardent and lafting 
friendfhip. A benevolent man mud have friends, 
becaufe he muft be friendly. The benevolent man 
loves his kind ; and even the experience of treachery, 
of favours ill requited, or kindnefs not returned, will 
not chill his bofom, or indifpofe it to delight in the 
good of others. The benevolent affections teach us 
how to overcome evil with good ; they teach us 
how to conquer without righting for victory, to con- 
ciliate the vindictive, to bend the (lubborn, and to 
appeafe the paflionate. , 

34. The happinefs of nations muft be the greater 
the more that the benevolent affections warm the 
breads of individuals. Nations are only families on 
a larger fcale ; and the happinefs of the great family 
of nations is only an aggregate of the happinefs of 
all the individuals who compofe it. The more in- 



( 336 ) 

dividuals are happy, the greater is the public happi- 
nefs. The benevolent affections infpire the indivi- 
duals whom they animate, with zeal and vigour in 
promoting the hnppinefs of others, of their kindred, 
of their friends, of thofe connected with them bv 
blood or acquaintance, by the ties of religion, of 
neighbourhood, or country -, or by any of thofe 
fympathies that bind man with man in all the na- 
tions of the earth, and through the whole circum- 
ference of humanity. The more individuals there 
are in a fingle family, in whofe bofoms the benevo- 
lent affections glow, the lefs flrife, the lefs envy, and 
the lefs ill-will there will be in each condiment part; 
and confequently the greater tendency to promote 
the happinefs of the whole. If every member of a 
family were animated by the benevolent affections, 
no mifery could well be felt. One would be a (lay 
to the other. The bitternefs of family hate would 
be loft in the fweet intercourfe of family affection. 
Jealoufy between brothers and filters, between near 
and more diftant kindred, and which fpring from a 
divided intereft, would be at an end. They would 
be united by a reciprocity of interefts and fenfations. 
The rich would not (hun the intercourfe, or be in- 
fenfible to the wants of their relations in diftrefs. 
The profperity or adverfity of the one, would in 
forne meafure be the profperity and adverfity of the 
other. They would be fcen together in the fun- 
fhine and in the dorm. 



( 237 ) 

35« True benevolence, though it will bear pref- 

"ti 

fure, loves expanfion. It breaths the moft exhila- 
rating fweetnefs over the adjoining region of the af- 
fections ; but it alfo fcatters its fragrance far and 
wide, from thofe who have the nearer! claims on the 
heart, to thofe whofe claims are more remote. It 
fpreads from the wife of our bofom, or the child of 
our hope, from the father, who was the flay of our 
infancy, or the brother who was the companion of 
our youth, to the friends, with whom we have taken 
fweet counfel together, to the companions with 
whom we have travelled in the road of life ; to thofe, 
whofe fields and homes border on our own \ to thofe, 
who kneel with us at the fame altar ; or who are 
united in the intereft or endeared by the name of 
one common country, till it embraces the whole 
peopled world. 

36. Whenever a fpirit of benevolence (hall ani- 
mate the councils of nations, and the governments 
of the earth, public oppreffion will ceafe, and want 
will be felt no more. Liberty, pure and genuine, 
fuch as is worthy of a rational nature, that liberty 
which impofes no reftraints on harmlefs or innocent 
gratification, which allows freedom of fpeech and 
liberty of inquiry, which encourages the growth of 
reafon and the growth of virtue, which protects the 
rich from the ravage of the poor, and the poor from 
the infults and extortions of the rich ; this liberty 
would flourifh in all its beauty, not like that tree of 

Z 



( 33* ) 

liberty, which, in thefe calamitous clays, has (6 often 
been planted by the fword j which has been watered 
by the tears of the widow and the orphan ; whofc 
trunk has been fattened with flaughter ; and whofe 
boughs have been hung with the trophies of outraged 
humanity and violated juftice. That liberty which 
would naturally grow out of the fovereign fway of 
the benevolent affections, would fhelter the father- 
lefs and the widow ; under its fpacious boughs the 
rich and the poor might dwell fafely; humanity 
would tend its growth, juftice would prune its 
branches, and the favour of heaven, fmiling on Co 
fair a plant, would protect its leaves from the canker, 
and harden its trunk againft the florm. 

37. Under a government where the benevolent 
affections prefided, fwaying the fceptre of policy 
and moderating the feverity of juftice, infurredlions 
could not happen , for mankind, by a fort of in- 
flictive impulfe, neceflarily love a government 
that confults their happinefs, that protects their pro- 
perty, that is tenderly alive to the fecurity of their 
rights and the prefervation of their freedom. A 
people, that was animated by the true principle of 
benevolence, would cherifh fuch a government with 
a more than filial affection, and would be ready to 
fpend their laft (hilling for hs neceffities, and fpill 
their laft drop of blood for its fupport. 

9 



( 339 ) 

38. In whatever nation a fpirit of benevolence 
animated the people and the government, the hearts 
of individuals and the councils of the (late, that na- 
tion would, as far as in it lay, remain at peace with 
all the world. It would not lightly or wantonly un- 
iheach the fword j it would engage in no wars of 
aggrefiion or ambition ; and, if attacked by another 
power, it would not carry on hoftilities with rancour 
or malevolence ; but would efteem the reftoration 
of peace of more importance to the happinefs of its 
people, than the vain boafts of conqueft, or the idle 
trophies of ambition. 

39. The Divine Author of Chriftianity, by en- 
joining the benevolent affections fo forcibly in his 
doftrine, and, above all, by his example, by fo power- 
fully enforcing their cultivation, and by lending the 
fanctions and promifing the bleffings of eternity to 
their practice, acted as the bed friend of man. Con- 
fcious of our wants, fenfibie of our diftreffes, and un- 
equalled in wifdom and in goodnefs, he propofed in 
his counfels, and recommended by his life, that 
remedy, which alone can wipe all tears from all eyes, 
and drive heavinefs from all hearts. Whenever 
Chriftianity fhall be univerfally profefied in all its 
truth, and practifed in all its purity, the world will 
be one univerfal monarchy under the reign of Love. 
Truth and Juftice will dwell among the nations ; and 
Benevolence will cover the earth as with a fhield, 

Z a 



RELIGION WITHOUT CANT. 



Moral good the great eft good, or the nature, tendencies, 
and effefts of moral aclion, theologically defcribed, 
philosophically dif cuffed, and praclic ally enforced. 

i.VJod gives to his intelligent creatures various 
faculties, of which he requires a right ufe. The right 
ufe of the faculties, which we poflefs, confifts in their 
conformity to the end for which they were defigned ; 
or, in other words, in their conformity to the will of 
him by whom they were bellowed. 

2. Of the faculties which God gives to his intelli- 
gent creatures, he does not interfere, by any imme- 
diate a£t of power, to controul the agency; for this 
would render the faculties of intelligent beings like 
the wheels of a piece of machinery, which are put in 
motion by a power foreign to the machine itielf. 

3. Of thofe laws, according to which God directs 
but does not compel our faculties to be employed, 



he gives us reafon to difcover the utility, or he 
makes their exiftence fo plain by their effects, that 
they cannot be unknown. It is in conformity to 
thefe laws, or in obedience to the will of the lawgiver, 
that our happinefs confifts ♦, and we cannot violate 
them, without taking fomething from the fum of 
our happinefs, or adding fomething to that of our 
mifery. 

4. We cannot violate thofe laws of temperance, 
to which God defires the faculties of our bodies to be 
kept fubfervient without impairing our health ; and 
though the effect of a fingle act of intemperance may 
not be apparent, it is not the lefs real ; it feems not to 
admit the relations of quantity, but, if often repeated, 
it foon accumulates to a fum of phyfical evil, under 
the preffure of which the health difappears and the 
body decays. It is probable, in like manner, that 
we cannot violate the great laws of truth and juftice, 
by whofe immutable decrees our words and actions 
ought to be governed, even in a fingle inftance, 
without deducting fomething from the fum of good, 
which would otherwife be our portion. Though 
the effect be not immediate nor palpable, its influence 
operates, though it operates unfeen. It falls in, as it 
were, with the great and powerful ftream of moral 
caufes, which are in a ftate of continual motion; and 
which invariably tend to carry evil to him by whom 
evil has been done. 



( 34* ) 

5» Every immoral adl, or act of difobedience to 
the divine will, (for I confider morality in no other 
light than the will of God,) has a necefTary and uni- 
form tendency to bring us, as it were, within the con- 
fines of mifery *. As phyfical evil is hurtful to the 
body, fo moral evil is destructive to the foul of 
man. 

6. Why does God require us to obferve the moral 
law, but becaufe he wills us to be happy ? And why 
does he require us not to violate ic, but becaufe he 
wills that we mould not be miferable ? The moral 
law is an emanation of his goodnefs, and the practice 
of it was commanded for the good of his creatures. 
The good of his creatures is the object of the will of 



* Oh that kings and governments would remember this ! 
That they would confider themfelves as the fervants of God 
upon earth, whofe duty it is to execute his will rather than 
their oxvti! Let the defpot, before he ififues his arbitrary " fiat," 
confider whether it be agreeable to the law of the moral Gover- 
nor of the world. No governments fhould enact any laws, ad- 
verfe in their fpirit, or hoftile in their tendency, to thofe of the 
Great King of heaven and earth. They mould make the moral 
laiv the bafis of the civil and criminal laws of the land. They 
fhould make a conformity to it, the ftandard of their intereft 
and the pillar of their policy. Then nations would be happy, 
and the governors of nations would erect their power on the 
immoveable rock of truth, of juftice, and of mercy 3 inftead of 
railing it on the fluffing fand of Machiavelian firatagem cruelty, 
and injuftice. See " Morality united with Policy," pp. 4cj — 52. 
Printed for White, Fleet Street. Price 2s. 6d. 



( 343 ) 

God ; for God in fcripture is ftiled love, to denote 
his benevolent concern for his creatures, and his dif- 
pofition to contribute to their happinefs. And as 
the moral law is the will of God, a conformity to its 
decrees mud tend to make us happy ; for God, who 
is love, cannot will his creatures to be miferable. 

7. God has appointed laws for the government of 
theflefh and of the fpirit; laws to direct our agency, 
as we are animals, fufceptible of pleafure and of 
pain j and laws to govern us, as we are moral agents, 
refponfible in another life for our behaviour in this. 
On our conformity to thefe laws, our prefent and 
our future happinefs depends. The firft relate to 
good, circumfcribed within the period of this life 5 
the lad to good, that extends beyond it. 

8. Every deviation from the laws of the flelh, or of 
our animal conftitution, muft indeed, in fome mea- 
fure, be a deviation from the laws of the fpirit or of 
our moral conftitution, for both originate from the 
fame divine will, and a deflection from one is an 
offence againft the power that appointed the other. 
What (inks us lower in the fcale of animality, de- 
prefTes us proportionally in that of intelligence ; the 
excefs of the animal is the depravation of the moral 
man. 

9. Every fenfual excefs, as far as it is the acl: of a 
rational being, pofTeffing a diftinct fenfe of right and 

z 4 



( 344 ) 

wrong, is a deduction from the fum of prefent and of 
future good ; from that good, which is hounded by 
the horizon of mortality, and that which awaits the 
righteous after death. A man may, indeed, deviate 
from the lavvb of his animal nature, he may be guilty 
of excefs in eating and drinking, and in criminal plea- 
fures, and which may have a direct influence on his 
prefent phyfical good ; but he may not be confcious, at 
the time, that he is doing any thing morally wrong; 
and therefore, the act, not being a wilful breach of 
any moral obligation, may have no connection with 
his condition in another life. It may not be a tranf- 
greflion for which he will be called to account ; for 
a man may offend againft thofe laws, by which a 
due moderation of all the appetites is made fubfer- 
vient to his prefent intereft, without knowing that he 
is finning againft the will of a fuperior power, which 
it is his duty to obey ; and therefore the tranfgrefiion, 
though it may be phyfically injurious, may not be 
morally deft ructives though it may, from the natural 
affociation of caufe and effect, be hurtful to the body 
in this world, it may not affect the ftate of the foul 
in the next. 

io. Nothing will operate againft the happinefs of 
man in another life, but moral difobedience in this ; 
and moral d ; fobedience implies a perverfe applica- 
tion of that faculty by which we difcern evil from 
good, and good from evil. A man may trefpafs 
againft the wife laws of his animal conftitution, by 



( 345 ) 
which pain is affociated with excefs of indulgence, 
and yet not fin againft the moral law, becaufe he may 
not know, or be capable of knowing, that there is 
iuch a law in being. 

ii. Before any man, as a being accountable to 
God for his actions, can do what is morally wrong, 
there mufl be a fenfe of what is morally right and 
morally wrong upon his conference ; or he mult have 
a faculty of difcerning their differences, which it is 
his duty to exert ; or the differences themfelves 
muft have been obliterated by long continuance in 
iniquity. No man can be excufed for doing what is 
morally evil, becaufe he neglects the ufe of the power 
which he poffefles to difcover what is morally evil ; 
or becaufe he has fuffered the moral fenfe to wade 
away through difufe, or to be para'yfed by wicked- 
nefs. 

12. The laws which relate to the prefent animal 
economy of man are inflexible and univerfal in their 
operation. Neither the tool nor the wife man can 
trefpafs againft them with impunity. When an idiot 
tranfgreffes the laws of health, the effect follows the 
courfe; the aggregate of phyfical good, which he 
could otherwife have enjoyed, experiences a certain, 
though not an immediate and vifible diminution *. 

* The idiot wants reafon, but he poffeffes fenfation ; and 
fenfation alone will teach the necefiity of temperance. The 



( 34<S ) 

But, if another perfon, who has a right ufe of his 
rational faculties, and on whofe conference the dif- 
tinctions of right and wrong, of moral good and 
moral evil are engraven, mould be guilty of the 
fame offence, the confluences may be extended 
beyond this fphere of things. 

13. Wherever there is a faculty of making juft 
diftinctions between right and wrong, there moral 
and phyfical good are the fame ; there prefent is 
identified with future good; there the interefts of 
time are incorporated with thole of eternity. The 
intemperance of the idiot, who has no right fenfe of 
moral obligation, may affect only his preient good j 
but the intemperance of a wifer man may be a de- 
duction from his future. 

14. The laws which relate to the government of 
the flefh, or the animal economy of man, embrace 
the whole fentient human race; but thofe laws 
which relate to the government of the fpiric, of the 
thoughts, the affections, and the whole moral eco- 
nomy of man, can concern only thofe who know the 
differences between good and evil, and understand 
the weighty matters of moral obligation. But, as in 

ignorant may, in many cafes, draw conclufions from lenfation 
without any intermediate fteps of rea facing, as well as the 
philofopher can by the more laborious proctls of ratiocination. 
Senfation often difcovers wife axioms of conduft, by bringing 
'is as it were, into contact with their benefits. 



( 347 ) 

the firft cafe, every deviation from the laws of our 
animal nature, takes fomething from the fum of 
phyfical good, which we mould otherwife enjoy, fo 
it is highly probable from analogies in nature, and 
from the intimations of fcripture, that every indivi- 
dual deviation from the laws of our moral nature 
muft fubtract fomething from the fum of our future, 
or what 1 call moral and eternal, in oppofition to our 
prefent, phyfical, and tranfient good. 

15. It feems the exprefs doctrine of fcripture, 
that the more righteous, or the more obedient to 
God's will men are in this life, the more happy they 
will be in another. Now, as every individual act of 
difobedience takes fomething from the fum total of 
our righteoufnefs, and confequently fomething from 
the fum of our future happinefs, fo every individual 
act of obedience adds fomething to the fum total of 
our righteoufnefs, (for a righteous life is only an ac- 
cumulation of many particular acts of obedience,) 
and confequently will make fome addition to the 
fum of our biifs, in that ftate to which this life is 
leading us. Thefe are weighty confederations,, and 
highly neceffary for us to cherifh, that we may not 
make a mock of fin, and count any one act of difo- 
bedience to the divine will a matter of little mo- 
ment. 

16. A righteous life is only an accumulation of 
many particular acts of obedience ; and, on the con- 



( 34* ) 

trary, an unrighteous life is only an accumulation of 
many particular acts of di (obedience. How many 
particular acts of obedience or of difobedience will 
caufe us, through the mercy of God operating in 
the atonement ofChrift, to appear juft in his divine 
prefence on the one hand, or will occafion cur ex- 
clulion from his favour on the other, we cannot af- 
certain, nor does it become us to inquire -, but this 
weighty truth it is highly important for us to know 
and to remember, that every individual act of good 
or of evil, of obedience or of difobedience, will have 
fome influence on our eternal deftiny. Oh that we 
would lay this truth to heart ! That we would medi- 
tate on it ere we deep at nights and ponder it well 
when we wake in the morning ! 

17. The greateft good which man can feek on 
earth, or enjoy in heaven, which can animate his ex- 
ertions here, or reward his labours hereafter, is the 
favour of God. And the only condition, by which 
this perfect gift can be obtained, or to the perform- 
ance of which it is appended, is a conformity to the 
moral law, the law of righteoufnefs and true holinefs. 
Every act of immorality, being a tranfgrefTion of 
the will of God, muft caufe a diminution of his fa- 
vour towards us. As God is a perfect being, and 
all his perfections of power, of wifdom, of juftice, 
and goodnefs, though confidered feparately by us, 
in order that they may be brought more within the 
grafp of our narrow apprehenfions, are, in fict, only 



( 349 ) 

one and indivifible, the will and the favour of God 
mud coincide. The only way to obtain his favour 
"is to do his will; and thofe who mod zealoufly 
drive to perform the one, will enjoy the greateft por- 
tion of the other. 

1 8. The will of God, confidered as operating in 
the moral world, fuperintending its government, and 
difpofing its whole economy for the encouragement 
of moral good, and the punifhment of moral evil, 
may be confidered as a {trait line, pointing to our 
greateft happinefs, and ftretching through this life 
into eternity. The more we violate the divine pre- 
cepts, the more we recede from this line, and the 
farther we depart from happinefs ; and, if inftead of 
fleering our way through life by its direction, we 
keep removing farther and farther from it, from the 
time when the power of making juft diftinctions 
between right and wrong commences to the period 
when it ends, we may lofe the favour of God, with- 
out being reftored to it again for ever * ! 



* If this fuppofition be true, the punifhments denounced 
in tcripture againft the wicked, may be not only figuratively 
but literally accomplished. They may be eternal l Here, O finful 
man! paufe and consider thy danger before thou rufheft into 
irretrievable deftru&ion ! 

In the Picture of Christian Philofophy, 3d edit. pp. 58 — 60. 
t have fuggefted that the puniinment of the wicked in another 
world will probably be of long, but not of infinite duration; 
and I have laid that an eternity of punifhment for temporal 



( 3S° ) 

19. Continual a<5h or habits of goodncfs caufe us, 
as it were, to keep a courie parallel with the will of 

offences appears repugnant to any enlarged notions of the 
juftice and the goodnefs of God. At the moment I am writing 
this note, (Friday morning, Jan. 2d, 1801,) 1 do earneftly hope 
that all, even the greateft Turners may, and I do furmife that 
they ivill be Hived. I have many reafons for believing that 
the punifhment of the wicked will tend, though flowly, and 
through a long feries of fullering, to extirpate the evil habits, 
which they have formed, and to bring about their reconciliation 
with the God whom they have offended. But then this belief 
is rather the expreflion of hope, than the aflurance of certainty j 
rather a conjecture which I love to indulge, than a position 
which the fcripture gives me any exprefs authority to fupport. 
The language of the facred writers upon the fubject hardly 
warrants the conclusion which I with to draw 5 and though 
that language may poflibly be, and probably is, only the com- 
mon inflation of the eaftern idiom, yet when I confider that 
this life is a ftate of trial for eternity, and that when this pro- 
bationary fcene of things is over, it may never be fucceeded by 
another, in ivh'ich there ivill be any room left for repentance or for 
pardon, and that, confequently, in this cafe, the finner would 
retain to all eternity the corrupt habits in which he left the 
world, and would thus remain for ever unfit for the communion 
of the juft ; when T confider this, I dare not pronounce rafhly 
on fo weighty a queftion. And this truth it behoves us feri- 
ouily to weigh, and attentively to remember, that whether the 
punifhment referred for the (inner in 'another life be temporal 
or eternal, godlinefs in this ivorld ?mijl he great gain -with refpeel 
to another. Reader, whoever thou art, or to whatever feci thou 
mayeft belong, if thou haft turned afide from the path of good- 
nefs, which, believe me, is the only path of happinefs, let me 
conjure thee as a friend, interefted in thy welfare, to meafure 
back thy way, ere the long night fet in, and the thick darknefs 
overwhelm thee! 



( 3$* ) 

God ; or, at lead, with only fome occafional and 
tranfient deviations from it, fuch as are hardly to be 
avoided by human imperfection. But from fuch de- 
viations to moral evil, a return is eafy to moral good, 
when the principle of righteoufnefs is fixed in the 
mind and engraven on the heart. And even the (in- 
ner who has made not only fome few and occafional 
deflections, but who has long continued in a (late of 
defle&ion from the (trait line of obedience, though 
he may never, in this life, be able to attain to that 
point of obedience, at which, if he had not fo often 
or fo long erred, he might have arrived *, yet he 
may approach it in an indefinite degree ; fo as to 
efcape the being carried after death into the abyfs 
of mifery. But every (lep that a finner removes 
farther from the line of religious obedience, the 



* How great, how incalculable is the importance of early 
impreliions of piety ! Impreflions, which, by a careful culture, 
may be confolidated into habits that the company of the diflb- 
lute cannot afterwards deprave, nor the arts of the infidious 
undermine. A man may turn to God in his old age ; but habits 
of righteoufnefs begun at that late period, though they may 
deliver from the wrath to come, cannot be fo productive of 
future happinefs, as thofe habits of righteoufnefs, of which the 
feeds were fown in youth. Ye guardians of the young, before 
all other accomplishments, labour to inftrucl: their minds in the 
knowledge, and to imbue their affections with the fpirit of 
true religion ! Ariftotle fays with great truth, a [uxgov sv 8ia.$e§ei 
to tstwg rj 8tou$ eu§v$ ek vsuvv s§i%E<r&a.i aXXa, Tta^itoXv, waXXov Ss j 
to itav. Ariftot. Eth. Nicom. lib. ii, c. 1. Ed. Pet. Victor. 4to. 



Francofurti 1584. p. 22, line 1?. 



( 35* ) 

more difficult it will be for him to retrace his way to 
the point of deviation ; for the momentum of bad 
habit increafes as he proceeds, and die more his pace 
is accelerated towards destruction. 

20. Every Tingle act of fin is a deflection from the 
ftrait line of duty, and confequently deducts fome- 
thing from the happinefs which we frVuld other- 
wife enjoy ; for duty is conformity to the will of 
God, and to this conformity his favour is appended, 
in which alone true happinefs conjifts. Hence we fee 
the neceflity of abftaining, with all the vigilance, 
which we can exert, even from thofe fmall indivi- 
dual tranfgrelTions which we are too apt to regard 
as matters of little moment ; which feem not at the 
time to fubtract any thing from our happinefs, or 
add any thing to our mifery. But, habitual fins, 
though they may be habitual violations of only one of 
the leaft of the commandments* are a continual infraction 
of the will of God ; a continual turning from our 
duty, and, confequently, a continual facrifice of our 
only real and fubftantial intereft and glory. 

21. The mod: righteous in this world will make 
fome occafional deflections from their duty ; but 
thofe mult be the happielt who make the feweft. 
The nearer we approach that line of perfect obe- 
dience and abfolute fubmiffion to the will of God, 
where true glory and happinefs begin and end, or, in 
other words, the more our habits of goodnefs in this 

i 



( 353 ) 

life advance in ftature and increafe in flrength, the 
greater will be our portion of blifs in the life to 
come ; and if the righteous grow, as they probably 
will grow in goodnefs to all eternity, they mud in- 
creafe in happinefs to all eternity. 

22. The felicity of the righteous muft keep pace 
with their moral improvement > and the one may ad- 
vance perpetually like the other. Eternity does not 
admit the relations of time -, but as it is poflible to 
fuppofe any given portion of time capable of end- 
lefs accumulations, fo it is poflible to imagine any 
particular portion of virtue or of happinefs to be 
increafed, and to go on increafing through all eternity. 

23. The perfections of God, being infinite, can 
never be changed 5 they admit of no limitations or 
additions ; they cannot be enlarged or diminifhed in 
number or in fize ; but the perfections (perhaps I 
ought rather to fay the imperfections) of man being 
only a finite quantity, may be continually augmented, 
or continually diminifhed ; continually ameliorated 
or continually depraved. The increafing perfections 
of man bear a conflant relation to his paft imper- 
fections. And the comparative perfections of the 
creature may keep continually growing in vigour and 
in fize, without ever becoming infinite j they may 
be extended to an immeafurable diftance from the 
point of imperfection at which they kt out, and yet 
attain no nearer to the infinite perfections of God, 
than they were at the beginning. What is finite, 

.A a 



( 354 ) 

however vaft it may feem to what is, if I may \o 
exprefs it, more finite than itfelf, can bear no pofftble 
proportion to what is infinite; no, not fo much as 
a mite does to the fubftance of the world. 

24. The will of God, in a conformity to which 
morality confifts, is the perfection of his power, of 
his wifdom and his goodnefs. When God, by his 
fimple volition, created light, his will was the 
image of his attributes, of his power, his wifdom, 
and his goodnefs. The moral law, by which he 
governs the intellectual world, and the relations 
of which muft have exilted in the divine mind 
from the beginning of time, was as much the refult 
of his fimple volition, as the creation of light, 
or the eftablifhment of the laws which regulate the 
univerfal fyftem. The moral law fhews his wifdom 
in contriving it, his power in fixing and perpetuating 
its relations, and his goodnefs in fo arranging the 
wonderful economy of caufes and effects, of actions 
and their confequences, as, without controuling the 
free agency of man, makes obedience to its decrees 
always ultimately productive of good and affociated 
with happinefs. 

25. The more we obferve the moral law, the 
more we do the will of God ; and the more we do 
his will, the more we approach his perfections; for 
the divine will and the divine perfections are identi- 
fied. The will of God, according to the different 
lights in which it is wiewed, is the abftract idea, th* 



( 3SS ) 
colle&ive fum or the aclive force of all his perfec- 
tions. And the moral law, according to the differ- 
ent relations in which it is confidered, may be re- 
garded as a provifion made by the divine wifdom, 
power, and goodnefs, for the happinefs of the whole 
rational creation. The moral perfectionning* of man 
confifts in the increafing conformity of his conduct 
to the moral law, or in his increafing obedience to 
the will of God. We cannot do all his will, for that 
fuppofes infinite perfection ; but we may keep on* 
through all eternity, improving in the faculty of 
doing it f. 

16. In the whole univerfe, there can be but one 
perfeclj being, and that is God 5 for every created 

* Had the philofophers Condorcet, Godwin, and others, 
confidered perfectibility not as an acquifition of phyfical and 
intellectual powers, which can never be attained by individual 
man in his mortal ftate -, but as a gradual growth in goodnefs, 
a continual increafe in our fingle acts of obedience to the 
divine will, and a confequent approximation to the divine 
image ; a moral perfectionning begun in this world and con- 
tinued in the next ; who could have objected to their hypo- 
thefts? Who could have derided fuch a Speculation ? Who 
could have difputed its great practical utility ? The mind of 
man can entertain few reflections more ufeful or more juft. 

•f- We are not to fuppofe that man will continue ftationary 
in that ftate to which death will lead him; it is more reafon- 
able to fuppofe, that he will keep through all eternity advan- 
cing from one ftate of intelligence to another, and from one 
degree of glory to a higher. 

% Here the word perfect is taken in its abfolute fignification, 
as excluding every idea of imperfection ; and not as before, 

A a 2 



( 356 ) 

being (and every being is and muft be created, 
God alone excepted) muft be imperfect ; and though 
there may be many, nay infinite degrees of imper- 
fection, when one created being is viewed in its re- 
lations to or confidered in comparifon with another, 
yet as the difference between that which had a be- 
ginning, and that which had none, is infinite, all 
created beings muft be placed equally diftant from 
his perfections, in whofe eyes the heavens are not 
clean, and who chargeth his angels with folly. 

27. But though the imperfections of man, con- 
fidered in their ftrict philofophical relation to the ab- 
folute perfections of God, may always continue in the 
fame date of inferiority, though no created nature 
can, in any period of its improvement* though that 
improvement fhould be carried on through an endlefs 
fuccefiion of ages, ever 'approach ivithin any given 
dijlance of the infinite power by which it was pro- 
duced ; yet the perfections of man, viewed either as 
relative to the pail ftate of the individual, or in com- 
parifon with the ftate of other created natures, may 
keep continually improving; and it is in the perpe- 
tual accumulation of that improvement that moral 
perfectionning confifts. We are to ufe the utmoft 
endeavours, and make the molt ftrenuous exertions, 



when I was fpeaking of the perfe&ions of man, where the 
word is taken as relative to fomething greater or fomething 
left. 



( 357 ) 
never to be ftationary in the race of moral improve- 
ment. Not looking back, but preffing forward, we 
are to labour continually to go beyond that point in 
the race of goodnefs, at which we lad arrived. We 
are to drive to excel both ourfelves and others, who 
are running the fame courfe, and panting to reach, 
the fame goal, in the great work of obedience to the 
will of God -, and we are to confider that obedience 
as the greatefl good, which we can purfue, or which 
we can attain. 

a8. It may be objected, that obedience to the will 
of God does not always conftitute our greateft good, 
but is often productive of great pain and inconve- 
nience. If, indeed, the connection between morality 
and intereft were terminated by the grave, obedience 
to the will of God might not always be our intereft; 
for circumftances may occur, in which one act of 
juftice or one exertion of humanity may coft a man 
his life. But, as the relations between morality and 
intereft are carried beyond the grave, and though they 
are very clofe and eafily difcoverable here, they will 
be indiflbluble and felf-evident hereafter -, and though 
they are fubject to certain contingencies in this world, 
they will be liable to no interruptions in the next ; the 
conformity of our conduct to the moral law or the 
will of God, muft always, in all circumftances, and 
under all poftibie combinations of prefent good or 
evil, be our greateft good ; for the greateft good^ 
which it is poftibie to attain in this fhort life, can 

Aaj 



( jH ) 

bear no proportion to the eiTenrial and endlefs good 
that is promifed in another. 

29. The more narrowly and attentively we fook 
into the moral economy of the univerfc, a field of 
fpeculation well fitted for the rational powers of man, 
where they may range with the greater!: freedom, and 
exert their vigour with the greateft fuccefs j where 
truths of the higheft importance to the welfare of the 
world are to be explored ; and where alone that true 
philofophy is to be found which connects earth with 
heaven, and elevates rational man to the precincts of 
pure intelligence j the more we fhall find that God 
has, in the moral order of things, made as immutable 
distinctions between right and wrong, between truth 
and falfehood, juftice and injuftice, as he has made 
in the phyfical order of things, between fweet and 
bitter, pain and pleafure, mifery and happinefs. 

30. Pleafurable fenfation in a moderate degree 
is always phyfical good ; but animal pleafure may 
be fo long continued as to cloy, or fo often repeated 
as to produce a pain greater than itfclf can counter- 
act; but obedience to the will of God, which is 
moral good *, can never be too long in duration, or 

* Moral good in this acceptation of the words, is fpiritual 
joy; and joy so truly spiritual, never springs from any 
other source. The Calviniils think that fpiritual joy can 
flow only from the wild orgafnis Qf devotion; but. in the moral 

1 



C 3S9 ) 
too intenfe in degree. It teems with delight that 
never tires j with pleafure that never cloys. Moral 
pleafures, or pleafures refulting from the practice of 
truth, of juftice, and of charity, are not iubjedt to 
any repletion of enjoyment. They admit an infinite 
augmentation, and the more often they are tailed, 
the greater becomes their capacity to give pleafure 
and ours to receive it. Senfual pleafures are ufually 
greater in the fond illufions of anticipation than in 
the reality of pofTefiion. But moral pleafures, being 
no> illujion, the reality only can delight ; they are there- 
fore little known till they are experienced, and the 
experience always furpaiTes the higheft expectation. 
Senfual pleafures flourifh mod in the bloom of youth, 
but moral pleafures increafe with increafing years. 
Endued with an immortal principle, they charm 
when the glow of phyfical fenfibility expires ; they 
extend their delight even to our hoar hairs ; and 
promife to the dying an eternity of blifs. 

31. Our nature is fb conftituted, that, as what is 
fweet is agreeable to the tafte, or what is fmooth to 
the touch, lb what is morally good, inftantly, and 
without any labour of preparation, gratifies both the 
mind and the heart. As a tafte for what is fweet is 
natural, and a tafte for what is bkter artificial, fo a 



improvement of their conduct ', they would find joys more fweet and 
?nore genuine, raptures more delicious but /nore rcafonabU\ and f 
though more tranquil, more fublime. 

Aa4 



( 36o ) 

tafte for moral good is the inftindtive propenfity of 
the foul, and a tafte for moral evil is the product of 
habit. 

32. Pleafurable fenfation is the primary object of 
man; but pleafurable fenfation, the pureft in kind 
and the greater! in degree, is connected with and 
refults from acts of goodnefs. Thus God has given 
to our nature a bias to moral good in preference to 
moral evil * ; and our fenfations themfelves are, in 
fome meafure, capable of diftinguifhing their differ- 
ences. The practice of truth, juftice, and mercy, 
feems a natural fource of agreeable fenfation, to 
which the reafon cannot deny its allent nor the heart 
its fanction. But the practice of falfehcod, of in- 
juftice, and of cruelty, is a natural caufe of painful 
feelings f, for it is abhorrent to the plain dictates 



* Juft in the fame manner as he has given us a defire of 
happinefs in preference to mifery. Moral good is happinels, 
moral evil mifery ; though perverfe aiTociations and a rapa- 
cioufnefs of pre lent pleafure make us blind to this truth, and 
indifferent to the confequences. 

-f If painful feelings be not always produced by falfehood, 
injuflice, &c. it does not follow that they have not a natural 
tendency to produce them. For, the tafte of tobacco and of 
many other things has a 7iatural tendency to produce naufca 
and excite averfion ; though it fometimes produces neither the 
one nor the other, but quite the contrary. In the hift cafe, the 
phyfical tafte is impaired, or a new and unnatural one has been 
Superinduced by habit; and whenever vice is relimed, or virtue 






( 36 1 ) 

of common fenfe, and the unvitiated fenfiblllties of 
humanity *. 



loathed, the natural healthy moral tajle has been corrupted from its 

original fimplicity. 

* There feems a ftrong propensity in mankind to be fpefcta- 
tors of fcenes of mifery Children, as I have often obferved, 
affemble in greater crowds to fee a funeral than a wedding, 
and the populace will always quit a puppet ibow to attend a 
criminal to the gallows. Sympathy, when it is ftrong and 
vivid, always forcibly attracts us towards the object; and it is 
this fympathy which carries men to witnefs an execution in 
preference to other fcenes apparently more agreeable. It muft 
not be fuppofed, that becaufe men are thus powerfully im- 
pelled, by a certain principle in their nature, to be fpectators 
of others fufferings, they feek to derive, or that they actually 
do derive pleafurable fenfations from the fufferings of their 
fellow-creatures j for the principle of fympathy which, if I 
may fo fpeak, accelerates our fteps to fome fcene of mifery, 
•was made thus operative in our brcajls on purpofe iojlimulate us to 
relieve it. It may be afked, how can fympathy impel us to be 
fpectators of mifery, which we have no profpect of relieving, 
to fee pain inflicted and anguifh felt, which we can neither 
prevent nor alleviate ? But the principle of companion, which is 
one of the aboriginal principles of the human nature, always 
poffeffes a general tendency to attract us towards objects of 
mifery; and this paffive Hate of companion ufually precedes 
its active operations. In a populous city, when the news of 
any terrible accident or calamity is made known, multitudes 
infiantly rufh to the fpot ; but in this cafe, I do not believe that 
the majority are actuated more by emotions of curiofity, than 
by the principle of companion. When companion impels us 
to take a near view of the pains and fufferings of others, it 
feems to do it in order that thofe pains and fufferings may excite 
our benevolence into action. Mifery which is feen, is more 



( .362 ) 

33» We derive pleafure from the practice of 
truth, of juftice, and of mercy, abftradted from the 



likely to make ins 'Vive to relieve the fufferer, than that mifery 
which, being out of our fight, does not fo powerfully aft on our 
feiifations. A few, indeed, will gaze icily on the fufferer and- 
pafs on, but the many will make fome effort to relieve him, and 
where circumftances render relief impolTible, the delireof afford- 
ing it will be expreffed on the countenance and felt in the 
heart. The miniftration of comfort to the dejecled, or help to 
the needy, affords pieafure ; and the fimple but heart-felt de- 
lire of adminiftering it, produces a pleafurable flate of felf-fa- 
tisfa&ion. Thus fympathy feems the principle which fo forci- 
bly impels men to be fpe&ators of executions, of fights of 
wretchednefs, and fcenes of woe; and in general, except in 
cafes of atrocious guilt, or in one or two individuals, who may 
leek to gratify the paffion of revenge in beholding the fuffer- 
ings of an enemy, it will be found, that the fpe&ators do not 
only companionate the fufferer, but feel a ftrong defire to avert 
or to abate his fufferings. 

In beholding the fufferings of others, we may, in fome cafes, 
involuntarily feel a fort of negative pleafure in the confciouf- 
nefs of perfonal fecurityj for the fight of mifery may induce 
us to make agreeable companions in our own favour. But 
though the motive which impels men to be fpectators of the 
fufferings of others may often be of a very mixed and complex 
kind, compafiion is always, in the great majority of cafes, one 
of its principal confiituents ; and perhaps its force is more than 
equal to that of all the reft. Thus the wifdom and goodnefs 
of God are very obfervable in his having made compaliion one 
of the mafter-principles of our nature, and to the influence of 
which fo many others are fubfervient. 

It has been faid that our active habits are ftrcngthened, and 
our paffive weakened by exercife. Thus the pain which is 
felt at the fight of miserable obje&s, is diminithed by the fre- 



( 3*3 ) 

confideration of any perfonai advantage, to which 
they may tend, or with which they may be con- 

quency of the fpectacle; but if the active principle of com- 
panion be exercifed as well as the paffive, the willingnefs to 
relieve objects of mifery is increafed in proportion as the pain 
which they canfe becomes lefs, or as the difagreeable impreflions, 
which they make on the fyftem, wear away. Hence it is right 
not only to indulge a paffive fympathy, but, as much as poffible, 
to cheriih and to exert the principle of active beneficence"} for, 
by this means, the painful feelings which a miferable Object 
caufes, will become lefs in degree, while the pleafurable feel- 
ings derived from active gooduefs will increaie as the habit 
is matured. But if we cheriih only the paffive feeling, with- 
out exerting the active energies of compaffion, the difpofition 
will receive a tendency to cruelty ; for the impreflions which 
fights of wretchednefs make, being diminifhed in ftrength by 
familiarity, and the decay of the paffive not being aflbciated 
with a proportionate increafein the active habit of benevolence, 
the perfbn will at laft come not only to be affected with no 
painful feelings from, but to take pleafurein the fpectacle, and 
perhaps even in the production of mifery. Hence we may 
eafily learn, how, in many cafes, that character which is termed 
cruel is formed. The feeling of compaffion is, by degrees, 
weakened, and the active principle of beneficence is not pro- 
portionably ftiengthened, till the raifery of others ceafing to 
excite pain, caufes at laft pofitive pleafure. I need not, I truft, 
anticipate the fagacity of the reader, in applying fome of the 
remarks, which I ha\e made in this note to the practice of 
education^ nor need I remind him, that they tend to iliow in 
what manner the habit of fentimental and pathetic novel- 
reading, while it feems to foften, tends in fact to harden the 
heart; and I think that they will furniih a clue to difcover 
why Roufleau, Sterne, and other writers, who were fo remark- 
able for a paffive fenfibility, were fo deficient in practical bene- 
ficence. 



( 3*4 ) 

nected ; but when we derive pleafure from the 
practice of falfehood or injuftice, the pleafure is not 
produced by the tranfgreffion, but by the emolu- 
ment with which it may be connecled, or the intereft 
which it may promote. The mind always difap- 
proves the practice of falfehood or injufttcej though 
its difapprobation may have lefs influence on the 
will, than the gratification with which the vice flatters 
the fenfes. We never approve faifehood as falfe- 
hood, or injuftice as injuftice, though fome tempo- 
rary advantages connecled with the practice, or fome 
animal pleafure refulting from it, may make us blind 
to their deformity and infenfible to their tendency. 
But, on the other hand, we always approve juftice as 
juftice, and truth as truth ; they want no aiTociated 
circumftances to give them an intereft in our hearts; 
they need no adventitious ornaments to make them 
pleafe, no artificial luftre to make them captivate ; 
and pleafures, pure and exquifite, always flow from 
an inviolable adherence to their obligations. 

34. All the pleafure that can be derived from the 
mod fuccefsful violations of truth and juftice, is ani- 
mal pleafure ; and which is always diminished, it not 
entirely deftroyed, by moral dijjathfciuion. On the 
other hand, when, refilling the allurements of falfe- 
hood or injuftice, we make any confiderable facri- 
fices at the fhrine of truth and juftice, our ftnfations, 
ruffled, perhaps, for a fhort feafon, always ultimately 
fettle into that \ leafurable ftare of moral fatitfacUon, 



( 3^5 ) 

which converts the lofs into gain *, and infpires that 
feeling of confeious rectitude, of which the poiTeffion 
is better than all the accumulated interefts of unn>ht- 

o 

eoufnefs. And though, on fome occafions, we may 
be required to cut of an arm, to pluck out an eye, 
or to part even with life itfelf, for the fake of truth, 
of juftiee, and humanity, we ought not to ihrink 
from the facrifice ; for if it diflblve our connection 
with the fleeting interefts of time, it will confolidate 
it with the interefts of eternity. He, fays the Lord, 
<who lofes his life for my fake fh all fdve it \ that is, he 



* If God have made morality our intereft, if he have im- 
planted in the mind, fuch a ftrong fenfe of its utility, that we 
never can, rationally, approve falfehood and injustice, and never 
rationally condemn truth and juftiee, how can it be faid that 
we are born altogether corrupt and abominable, radically dif- 
pofed to evil and indifpofed to good ? For, it appears, that if 
any constitutional bias be laid on our choice, it is rather in fa- 
vour of virtue than of vice. When pain and pleafure are 
rightly diftinguimed, we always prefer pleafure to pain; and 
when moral right and wrong are offered to the choice, the 
mind always prefers moral good to moral evil, unlefs when it 
is corrupted by the dominion of fenfual appetites and perverfe 
aflbciations. Moral good, rightly conjnlered, is the higher! and 
mod refined corporeal pleafure ; and it is the fweetefi: pleafure 
which we can tafte, for it is pleafure, in conformity to thole 
laws of the author of our being, in whofe favour is life, and 
without nvhofe regard there can beno Tajting meafiire. Con rider 
this, ye (ticklers for the innate moral corruption of man ! Con • 
fider this, and no longer make the great Father of fpirits the 
contriver and abettor of human depravity ! - 



( 366 ) 

who keeps my fayings, and is obedient to my laws, 
even unto death, fhall receive his recompenfe in a 
better world. Blefied, therefore, thrice bleffed are 
thofe, who are undefiled in the way, and walk in the 
law of the Lord. Truth and juftice, falfehood and 
injuftice, are not mere matters of human convention; 
they are not the random conjectures of the ignorant, 
or the barren fpeculations of the wife; their relations 
do not originate in the mind of man, but in the will 
of God; and inftead of being dependant on the ver- 
fatile changes of opinion or of policy, they have been 
eflablifhed and incorporated in the nature of things, 
by a decree which cannot alter, which has been fixed 
from the beginning, and will continue to the end of 
time. 

35. Chriftianity, by 'placing human conduct in 
its true relation to the interefts of eternity, proves 
that moral good is our greateft good, and moral evil 
our greateft evil. By promifing to recompenfe us 
according to cut works *, it fhows that the ftate which 
we fhall pafs into after death, has a clofe connection 
with our prefent habits ; for when Chrift declares 
that he will judge us according to our works, we 
cannot fuppofe that the fentence which he will pafs 
upon us, will be determined fo much by a few fingle 
acts as by the general habits of our lives. He will 
take a large and impartial furvey of our whole con- 

* Matt. xvi. 27. Rom. xi, 6*. 



C ' 367 ) 

duct from the beginning to the end of our^days. The 
more pet feci therefore our habits of obedience to the 
law of God have been, the greater will be our hap- 
pinefs after death. He that foweth fparingly, Jhall reap 
alfofparingly. Now the only feed which we can fovr 
in this life, preparatory to a rich harveft of future 
glory in the next, is acts of obedience and righteouf- 
nefs gradually ftrengthening into an habitual confor- 
mity of the conduct to the will of God. The more 
numerous our acts of obedience are, or the lefs inter- 
ruption they experience from acts of a contrary ten- 
dency, the more robuft and vigorous is the habit 5 
and confequently the greater will be the capacity of 
the individual for immortal blifs. 

36. Every fingle ad of obedience to the divine 
will may probably have fome influence on our fu- 
ture happinefs, as far as it adds fomething to the in- 
tenfity of thofe habits of righteoufhefs, which are con- 
ditional qualifications for eternal glory. An habit of 
religious obedience may be confidered as formed of 
many particular and individual acts of obedience, 
each of which has Jome Jhare in its formation. Thus, 
therefore, the power of the habit muft increafe in 
proportion to the number of the particular acts of 
obedience from which it refuks, of which it is the 
collective growth and the accumulated force. 

37. Every particular act of religious obedience 
carries on the increafe of the habit in the foul, and 



( 3«3 ) 

caufes our moral energies to expand more and more 
to the fulnefs of the ftature of Chrift. Habits of 
truth, of juftice, and of temperance, grow, as it were, 
out of the many particular occafions in which truth 
has been fpoken, and juftice and temperance prac- 
tifed ; or in which the temptations to falfehood, to 
injuflice, and intemperance, have been refilled. The 
habit of righteoufnefs advances with an accelerated 
pace, according to the number of the individual acts 
of righteoufnefs that we have performed and the 
flrength and number of the temptations which we 
have fubdued. 

38. Every temptation withftood by the reafon, 
and made fubject by the confcience, is not only fo 
much power taken from the flrength of fin, but fo 
much added to that of righteoufnefs ; and, in the 
fame manner, every particular act of obedience to 
the law of righteoufnefs tends to augment the force 
of the habit, and confequently to abolilh the law of 
fin which may reign in our members. Hence, it 
may be readily underftood, how every particular act 
of religious obedience adds fomething to the inten- 
fity of the habit of obedience -, and hence, we fee the 
neceflity of ufing our utmofl endeavours to abflain 
from every particular violation of the law of righ- 
teoufnefs, and even from the infrafHon of thofe fmaller 
moral obligations, which we are wont to tranfgrefs 
with indifference, and think to tranfgrefs with impu- 
nity. But as every fingle act of obedience adds ibme- 



( Sh ) 

thing to the intenfity of the habit, and every act of 
diibbedience takes fomething from it, fo the infrac- 
tion of what our Lord calls the leail commandments 
mud have fome influence on the moral character ; 
and confequently on the preparation of the heart for 
another life, 

39. The more intenfe our habits of religious obe- 
dience are, the greater mud be our fitnefs for future 
happinefs; for a future life will be, according to the 
intimations of fcripture and the fuggeftions of reafon, 
aflate of moral retribution - 9 when glory and honour 
ihall be rendered to him who hath done good, and 
tribulation and anguifh to him who hath done evil. 
A future life being therefore aflate of moral retribu* 
Hon, its happinefs mud be proportioned to the de- 
gree of moral obedience in the individual, or to the 
intenfity of his habits of righteoufnefs *. The more 
intenfe and vigorous the habit is, or the nearer ap- 
proach that the individual makes, proportioned to the 
opportunities which he enjoys, to the goodnefs which 
was manifeiled in the life of Chrifb Jefus, the greater 



* The intenfity of the habit muft bear a certain determinate 
relation to the time allotted to the individual to acquire it. 
Thus, habits of righteoufnefs acquired by an individual, who 
periihes in his youth, may be considered in relation to the time 
allowed for the acquisition, as intenfe, and contain a reafonable 
fitnefs for as high a Hate of future happinefs, as the habits of 
righteoufnefs acquired by another who lived to a good old age. 

Bb 



( 37° ) 

will be his capacity for happinefs in the life to 



come. 



40. The word of God bears fruit, in different 
degrees, in different perfonsj in fome it brings forth 
thirty, in others fixty, in others ninety fold ; but 
thofe who, with equal opportunities, make it yield the 
greateft increafe, will receive the largeft recompence 
at the refurrection of the juft. Thofe in whom the 
doctrine of Jefus has been mod prolific of righteouf- 
nefs, will occupy the higheft ftation among the fpirits 
of good men in heaven. Though there feems no 
truth lefs regarded, yet there is none in the whole 
compafs of fcripture more clear than this. In the 
parable of the ten pieces of money, (Lukexix.) he 
who had converted the one pound which he had re- 
ceived into ten pounds, received authority over ten 
cities; he, who with one pound, had gained five 
pounds, received authority over five cities ; while he 
who kept his pound laid up in a napkin, not only 
received no reward, but was deprived of all that he 
had ; as in the parable of the talents, (Matt, xxv.) 
the unprofitable fervant was caft into outer darknefs, 
where there is weeping and gnafhing of teeth. So 
will it be at the great day of retribution ! O ponder 
this ! ye, who either make a mock at fin, or do not 
ftrive with that diligence and zeal,, which become 
men who are one day to give an account of their 
thoughts, words, and actions, to improve in habits of 
obedience, to the will of the only Juft, the only 



( 37i ) 

Wife, and the only Good ! O ponder this ! ye who 
hold the truth in unrighteousness! Confider, before 
it be too late ! that every a 61 of difobedience is a 
Hep towards mifery and detraction. O ponder 
this ! and labour to advance in the race of righteouf- 
nefs ; the only race in which true happinefs is to be ob- 
tained or lofting glory to be won ! 

41. The more we do the will of God, the more 
we become like God •, for to do the will of God, is 
to imitate the perfections of God, whofe will is the 
ftimofhis perfections. In whatever he wills, his 
infinite wifdom, power, and goodnefs, are engaged. 
All his works are contrived with wifdom, executed 
with power, and perfected in goodnefs. The voli- 
tions of man are ofcen feparated from wifdom, power, 
and goodnefs. Man often wills to do that which he 
has not fagacity to devife, or ftrength to execute, or 
of which the execution anfwers no good end. There 
is often folly in the beg : nning, weaknefs in the pro- 
grefs, and detraction in the confummation of his 
fchemes. When man wills any thing, fome interval 
of time, greater or lefs, always elapfes between the 
volition and the accomplishment; but when God 
wills any thing, we cannot imagine the intervention 
even of a fecond time between his fiat and the exe- 
cution. 

• 

42. When we fay that God wills our obedience to 
the moral law, we do not mean that God has, by any 

B b 2 



( 37* ) 

abfolute decree, impofed on man the neceflity of 
obeying it, any more than he has impofed the necef- 
fity of violating it. This would be to enflave the 
human will, and to deftroy the morality of human 
actions, by making them the refult of a mechanical 
compulsion. We do not therefore allert that God 
willed our obedience to the moral law in the fame 
manner as he willed the creation of light, ( cc let 
there be light, and there was light;") but that he 
has appointed to the moral agency of man barriers, 
which cannot be paffed with impunity ; that he has efta- 
blifhed an order of things, by which obedience to the 
moral law becomes the intereft, and difobedience to 
it the bane of man -, that He has made a clofe and 
permanent connection between truth, juftice, bene- 
volence, and happinefs ; and between falfehood, in- 
juftice, malevolence, and miiery ; and that thefe re- 
lations which the All Wife, and All Good, has or- 
dained for the promotion of human virtue, and the 
extenfion of human happinefs, though they fome- 
times appear imperfect, broken and difordered here, 
will take place without any confufion, any failure or 
imperfection hereafter. 

43. Morality, or a conformity of our conduct to 
the will of God, does not, in this world, for wife and 
good purpofes, always conduct to prefent happinefs ; 
but the occafional miiery which it experiences 
fhould be regarded as the fatherly correction of the 
moral Governor of the uaiverfe^ defigned to extend 



( 373 ) 

the expectations of the individual towards another 
life, and at the fame time to increafe the fitnefs for 
its enjoyment. Though God has eftabliflhed the 
moral law, he does not fo conftrain the human will, 
as to force the performance of its obligations. He 
gives man a faculty to difcern between right and 
wrong, and an inward monitor to keep their differ- 
ences alive in his fenfations, and he then caufes his 
happinefs to depend on the choice which he makes. 
If God have fixed a clofe, and eafily perceptible 
connection between morality of conduct and prefent 
good, and an indiflbluble connection between righ- 
teoufnefs and future good, it is plain that he wills 
the morality of our actions, as a kind father wills 
the welfare of his children, without controuling their 
choice, or annihilating their freedom. Morality 
muft therefore be our greateft good ; end every act 
of immorality muft be a dereliction of our greateft 
intereft. 

44. True, plain, rational morality *, whofe obli- 
gations, when clearly explained and forcibly incul- 
cated, come directly home to the bufmefs and the 
bofoms of all mankind, is the perfection of natural 
religion, which confifts in the imitation of God j and 



* I do not mean the morality of the metaphyfician or the 
cafuift, of which the practical efficacy is loft in the clouds of 
fpeculation, in the fubtleties of evafion, or the perplexities of 
ingenious impofture. 

b b 3 



( 374 ) - 

the fame morality is the perfection of revealed re- 
ligion, which qonflfts in the imitarion ofChrift. 

45. Natural reafon, by investigating the attributes 
of God, as they are difpiayed in the natural, or as 
they may be deduced from the order of the moral 
world, may form a fort of abftraft model of excel- 
lence, in the imitation of whole virtues the beauty 
and perfection of natural religion will confift i but 
in revelation we behold, as it were, all the divine per- 
fections embodied in an individual. In revelation, 
we fee exhibited a diftinct, corporeal model of prac- 
tical righteoufhefs, exciting the admiration of the 
mind, and warming the fenfibilines of the heart. It 
is a model on which the virtuous look with love, and 
which the vicious cannot hate. The molt illiterate 
cannot be infenfible to its beautv, and the wileft are 
difmayed in the contemplation of its majefty. It is 
a fpcclacle interefting to the philofopher, who, like 
Newton, has furveyed the fpacious heavens, or who, 
like Bacon and Locke, or Hartley and Butler, has 
inveftigated the moral economy of man ; and it is 
equally interefting to him, whofe ideas do not foar 
above the preffure of his animal neceflitics, and 
whofe affections are in a great degree circumfcribed 
by his privations. It is, in one word, interefting to 
all, who poffefs the common feelings of humanity. 
It is a model of perfection, not too depreffed for the 
high, nor too elevated for the low - t it is fuited to the 
imitation of man in all regions and climes, under all 



( m ) 

changes of manners and opinions, and all poffibie va- 
rieties of laws and governments*. In the imitation 

o 



* Nothing can more Strongly Show the truth of Chriftianity, 
•than the Angularly Striking adaptation of Chrift's character, as 
a pattern of excellence and a model of imitation to univerfal 
man. Had the character been fictitious, taken from no living 
archetype, copied from no corporeal reality, can we imagine it 
poflible for ignorant people, like the Evangelifts, to have fa- 
ihioned it with the niceft philofophical accuracy and discrimi- 
nation, fo as to fuit all the neceffities of man ? — a pattern of 
excellence for the human race in all ages and nations, and abs- 
tracted from all considerations of place and time j whofe practi- 
cal ufefulnefs can never befuperfeded by the progreflion of the 
world in wifdom, or by its improvement in virtue; which is 
calculated to excite love the more it is Studied, and to diftufe 
happinefs the more it is imitated. All the accumulations of 
historical proof that have been fo induftrioufly collected by 
Lardner, and fo judicioufly arranged by Paley, do not amount 
to half that fulnefs of proof in fupport of the truth of revela- 
tion, .as the confideration of Chrift's character alone will furniih 
to a thinking mind. Were I a iked on what particular part of 
the evidence I would reft the truth of Chriftianity,, I fhould 
inflantly reply, on the tranfcendant excellence of Chrift's cha- 
racter^ confidered as an inimitable reprefentation of every mu- 
table virtue ; and compared with the circumftances of the 
authors, by whom it was drawn, and with the manners and genius 
of the people, among whom the glorious original lived and 
died. On the imitation of this character, which we not only 
read, but fee, in the memoirs of the Evangelists, the moral per- 
fcctionning of man depends; and the more its virtues are ab- 
ferbed into the manners, the difpofition, and the conduct of the 
human fpecies, the lefs muft be the fum of its imperfections. 
And in proportion as the practical excellencies of Chrift's cha- 
racter are receded from, the greater muft be the deviation of 

Bb 4 



( 376 ) 

of this character, the character and the virtues of 
Jefus of Nazareth, who is God with us *, the per- 
fection of revealed religion confifts j and thcfe who 



individuals and of nations from the path of true happinefs and 
glory. 

On the external evidence of Chriflianity all feems to have 
been laid that can be laid ; but the internal evidence has not 
yet been exhaufted by the refearch of the learned, or the re- 
flections of the wife. Some juft, and inftructive, and acute 
obfervations, may be found in Wakefield's Evidences of Chrilti- 
anity. I do not coincide with Mr. Wakefield in all his theo- 
logical or political opinions, but I admire his learning, and I 
-revere his virtues. 

* Without meaning to enter into the dark controverfy 
about the doctrine of the Trinity, which I leave to older theo- 
logians, and more recondite fcholars, I cannot help remarking, 
that all the perfections of the Godhead, power, wifdom, good- 
nefs infinite, did refide in a bodily form, in the perfon of Jefus 
of Nazareih; and that, confequently, he wis, according to the 
doctrine of the church of England, perfect God and perfect 
man But whether the divine attributes which he exercifed 
were hypottically and eternally inherent, according to the Tri- 
nitarian, or only delegated according to the Unitarian fcheme, 
whether he were God per fe, or inverted with the power, and 
wifdom, and goodnefs of God, as his reprefeutative, ftill it muft 
be conferled that he was God manifested in the flesh. 
On this fubject, the moft difficult in the whole compafs of 
theological inquiry, let us not be bitter towards others for think- 
ing differently- from ourfelves. Let the zealous Trinitarian con- 
lidcr, that though he underfland all myfterics, and have not 
charity, he is nothing. 



( 377 ) 

endeavour to make it confift in any thing £fe y will only 
mar its beauty and deftroy its ufefulnefs *. 

46. The divine perfections, as they are difplayed 
in the vaft and magnificent fyftem of creation, are 
beyond the utmoft ftretch of mortal comprehenfion. 
Of the works of God, of the operations of his pro- 
vidence, the exertions of his power, the contrivances 
of his wifdom, and the confummations of his good- 
nefs, it may truly be faid that their effulgence dazzles 



9 May I exprefs a few fentiments very genial to my heart, 
in the words of Epiicopius? " Veram theologiam credimus 
mere practicam efie, et proinde quaecunque in ea traduntur, eo 
unice referenda, ut ad officium fuum fedulo faciendum, et 
mandata Jefu Chrifti obfervandum acrius aptiufque homo in- 
flammetur atque animetur. Arida enim, efFaeta, fterilis, et pro- 
inde fpuria eft theologia, qne intra inanem fpeculationem, et 
contemplationem meram confiltit, quaeque poftquam diu mul- 
tumque vigilantiffimi cujufque induftriam fatigavit, atque inge- 
aium folum operofe exercuit, ad voluntatem tamen non pene- 
trat, et debitum Deo obfequium in ea non gignitj eoque nee 
veram ac falutiferam Dei Chriftique notitiam in nobis efficit. 
" Qui enim dicit, fe Deum norTe, et mandata ejus non fervat, 
mendax eft et in eo Veritas non eft." Prima igitur ac praecipua 
theologize laus in eo fita eft, ft animum hominis in obfequium 
Dei fie&at, et earn noftri partem, quam libertate naturali dona- 
vit Deus, et quafi fui juris atque arbitrii fecit, ita inclinet, ut 
Deo fefe totam fponte fua iterum fubjiciat, et abdicato priftino 
libertatis fuae abufu, du&um divinae tantum voluntatis fequa- 
tur. Cetera 07nnia> niji ad hunc fcnpimi dirigantur i coram Deo 
vana Junt etfrivola, et per fe minimi prccii, adcoque gene nihili 
ducenda" Prefat. ad ConfefT. Remonft. p. 73. 



( 373 ) 

our fight, and their obfcurity mocks our penetra- 
tion ; that their variety eludes our fearch, anJ their 
fublimiry exceeds the utmoft elevation of the human 
faculties. But, in the perfon of Chnft, we behold, 
as it were, thefe inconceivable perfections reduced 
to the fize of our aprrehcnfion, and brought within 
the angle of our fight. We behold a pattern of ex- 
cellence, of which we can, in fome degree, meafure 
the dimenfions, and which we are capable of imi- 



tating* 



47. In the character of Chnft, we fee the higheft 
abftraiftions of goodnefs, which the mind can feign, 
moulded into a certain diftinct figure and fhape ■> in 
his life and in his doctrine we obferve every fpecies 
of moral excellence, that can be attained in practice, 
or imagined in [peculation *. 

48. If there be any part in ChrinVs charadter, 
where all is purity without a fpot, and fplendour 

* Hence the great fuperiority of the Chriftian over every 
other fyftem of theology. In all other fyftems, fuch an ex- 
ample is wanting, and no other fyftem befides polfclTes the 
effential cbaracteriftics of, and the neceffary fitnefs for an uni- 
verfal religion. True religion admits not the narrow limita- 
tions of time and place, of cufloms, manners, &c. 5 but on what 
religion but the. Chriftian can this piaife be beftowed? All the 
nations and governments of the earth may live, and move, and 
have their being, under its influence. Jr puts nothing out ol 
i i.- place, it promotes good will inliead of itriie, and calm 
acouiefcence initcad of factious. difcontent. 



( 379 ) 

without a cloud, which more particularly excites 
our love and engages our efteem, it is the conftancy 
of his benevolence. The benevolent affections give 
morality its fragrance, virtue its attractions, and re- 
ligion its ufefulnefs. There is no place, and there 
can be no clrcumftances, in which their cultivation 
is not required for the good, and in which their 
practice is not effential to the happinefs of mankind. 
They produce content, and cheerfulnefs, and mirth, 
in the filent hamlet and in the obftreperotis city; in 
the vale of ieclufion and in the throng of fociety; 
in the affairs of families ana in the councils of nations. 
They alone make the eye to fparkle with genuine 
joy, and the heart to thrill with lafting pleafure. 
Thefe affections, fo aufpicious in their influence, 
and fo inexhauftible in their benefits, (hone with an 
inimitable lultre in the fentiments and in the con- 
duct of Jefus; and nothing can fo powerfully pro- 
mote their growth in the heart, and their diffufion 
through the world, as the vigorous and general imi- 
tation of his character. 

49. Chriftianity, by being delivered in the form of 
a hiftory, and that hiftory containing the delineation 
of a perfect character, mowing the man Jefus an un- 
rivalled example of humility, meeknef , and every 
virtue, enduring infults with gentlenefs, injuries uith 
forbearance, fubduing oppreffion by patience, and 
malevolence by charity, endeavours to keep a pat- 
tern of righteoufnefs conftantly fixed before our eyes. 



( 38o ) 

Had the precepts * been delivered in a more dry 
and abftracT: form, without being fo diftinctly per- 
fonified in a corporeal reality, or had they been tranf- 
mitted to us in the fhape of a philofophical treatife, 
diftinguifhed by the nicety of the arrangement, and 
thejuftnels of the reafoning, by the eloquence of 
the ftyle, and the conclufivenefs of the deductions, 
and had this treatife even been confirmed, at its ori- 
ginal publication, by certain miraculous appearances, 
yet it could not have excited fo much intereft, or 
been affociated with fo much good, as the fimple 
narrative of the Evangelifts ; in which we meet with 
hiflorical relation inftead of elaborate difcufiion j 
with accidental difcourfes inftead of premeditated 
orations; with fhort authoritative fayings inftead of 
logical argumentation. The character gives weight 
and dignity to the precepts, and the precepts add to 
the intereft and the authority of the character; the 
force and juftnefs of the one, and the beauty and the 
fitnefs of the other, imprefs a convi&ion on the 
mind, and gain an afcendency in the heart, which 
could not eafily have been produced by the more 
abftrufe and lefs popular method of philofophical 
inquiry. 

50. Chriftianiry, bv holding a model of fuch per- 
fection before our eyes, takes the fureft and the 

* The precepts nre a perfect rule of life; but it is the cha- 
racter which gives them fo much beauty and effect, which ren- 
ders them fo perfuaiive and fo interefting. 



( J8i ) 

ihorteit way to facilitate our improvement in righ- 
teoufnefs, to animate our exertions, and to accelerate 
our progrefs. The view of a character fo excellent 
tends to produce that jufl fenfe of our own inferio- 
rity, which generates humility, and, at the fame time, 
it infpires an honed zeal, and inftigates to vigorous 
efforts to attain perfection. 

51. The imitation of any individual, confpicuous 
for wifdom or for virtue among our fellow-creatures, 
tends to improve the character. It generates a 
hearty defire to get rid of our own imperfections, to 
amend what is evil, and to improve what is good; 
to ftrengthen what is weak, and to eftablifh what is 
ftrong. But, in the wifeft and the bed of men, 
though there may be much to imitate, there will be 
fomething to ihun. There will be fome blemifhes to 
abate our admiration, and to excite our companion, 
if not our fcorn. But, in the character of Chrift, 
which is perfection abfolute, integrity without blemifh, 
and innocence without guile, there is nothing which 
we may not love and ought not to imitate. There 
is nothing to extenuate regard or to produce difguft; 
there is no littlenefs to take off from the greatnefs ; 
the goodnefs is not debafed by one particle of evil ; 
and the wifdom is not blurred by the prefence of a 
fingle abfurdity. We behold a perfon like ourfelves, 
a man pofTefTing all the characteristics of humanity, 
without any of thofe defects which excite averfion,and 
with all thofe virtues which generate cordial eflecm 



( 3«2 ) 

and every pleafurable fenfation. We fee nothing 
but perfection ; but it is the perfection of mortality. 
It is a perfection exactly fuited to our apprehenfions; 
it is not an indefinite, imaginary fomething, which 
our minds cannot grafp, or with which our hearts 
cannot fympathize. We behold Jefus endued with 
that wifdom which bears with the froward and in- 
ftrudta the fimple, and with that beneficence which 
condoles with the fad and rejoices with the happy. 
He appears, indeed, inverted with the fceptre of 
the power of God, but his power does not excite 
dread fo much as love, for he exerts it only in doing 
good. 

52. In the natural world, we may difcern nume- 
rous appearances, from which to deduce and collect 
numerous arguments, by which to eftablifh the good- 
nefs of God ; but we do likewife obferve fome things 
whichy^;/? to indicate an indifference to the happi- 
nefs of mankind. We behold evident marks of a 
defign to impart happinefs; but do we not difcover 
fomething like the features of a being that delights 
in mifery ? We fee, and we feel a great deal of good, 
but it is, at lead to our grofs perceptions, mingled 
with a great deal of evil. We behold the wifcft and 
the kindeft arrangements made for the prefervation 
of man -, but there are others which feem contrived, 
as if, in mere wantonnefs, for his deftruction. In 
contemplating the Deity, in the natural and moral 
economy of the world, we meet with certain mani- 



( 3*3 ) 

feitations of great regard for his creatures ; but we 
fometimes obferve good and evil difpenfed with a 
fort of fortuitous extravagance. We fee all things 
happening alike to all, and the rain and the dew 
falling on the righteous and the (inner. The fields 
of the liberal are fometimes parched with drought; 
while thofe of the covetous are fertilized by conti- 
nual mowers. The property of the fimple and in- 
duftrious peafant is fwcpt away by a torrent, while 
that of his corrupt and luxurious neighbour feems 
purpofely exempted from its violence. We fee the 
hopes of the upright withered and decayed, while 
the fraudulent flourifo beyond their mod fanguine 
expectations. The earth is decorated with flowers 
and enriched with fruit ; but whole cities are fome- 
times buried under the eruptions of volcanoes ; and 
the innocent are not fpared in earthquakes and con- 
vulfions. Man occafionally enjoys, as it were, the 
full funlhine of the divine benevolence ; but he often 
mourns under the (hadow of adverfity, and groans 
under the oppreffion of the Mod High. In (hort, 
the goodnefs of God, many as are the proofs of it, 
which are palpable to fenfe and obvious to inquiry, 
is liable to objections, which may well prevent ac- 
quiefcence in his decrees and refignation to his will; 
unlefs we take a future life into our view of this > and' 
confider the prejent evil world as a paffage to a better* 

53. If the good which there is in the world, and 
which is fufficient to prove the benevolence of the 



( 384 ) 

Creator, were more predominant than it is, men could 
not reafonably expect a future life; and if the pro- 
portion of evil were much greater than it is, they 
could feel little pleaiure in the contemplation. For, 
if the evil abounded much more than it does at 
p relent, the proofs of the divine benevolence would 
be proportionally diminifhed ; and in this cafe, even 
on the fuppofuion that there were a future life, fa 
for would the probability be decreafed of that life's 
being a ft ate of happintfs. Bur, under the prefent 
fyftem of things, the good is juft fo predominant as 
ftrikingly to demonftrate a difpofition to produce 
happinefs, and juft enough evil is mingled with it, 
to cherifh the expectation of a better, a lefs preca- 
rious, and lefs miierable exiftence*. 



* It is a vain attempt to reafon men out of their fenfations 
by abftraft propofuions. That there is much pain and mifery 
in the world cannot be denied : but then I think that every one 
■will acknowledge them to be terms of degree and of compa- 
rifonj and that in the individual they maybe considered as 
relative to what is paft and to what is to come. A greater 
pain abforbs a lefs, and a lefs following a greater is comparative 
pleafure. Whether the Deity could not have constituted this 
world without any intermixture of pain and mifery it is ufelefs 
to inquire ; nor does it belong to us to meafure the pollibilities. 
But, taking .the world as it is, we are to confider whether 
marks of benevolent defign be not widely fcattered through the 
whole fyttem, and whether the portion of pain and lbrrow 
which we do experience, and under which creation often feems 
to groan, do not, on the whole, increafe the balance of enjoy- 
ment; and, by divcrjifying the fenfations of man augment his hap- 



( 3«5 ) 

54. Were there much lefs mifery than there is m 
the world, were the good lefs allayed with evil, were 

finefi. It may, indeed, very fairly be afked, whether, in a 
being fo conuituted as man, there could be a fenfe of happi- 
nefs without any acquaintance with mifery, or a confcioufnefs 
of pleafure, if there were a total inconfcionfnefs of pain ? Bat 
however this may be, certain it is, that the experience of pain 
always heightens the relith for pleafure. The fcheme of the 
univerfe is probably fo ordered, that every intelligent being is 
rendered capable of a continual and endlefs progrefflon in hap- 
pinefs j and this progreffion, with refpect to the individual, 
may be an interminable feries of comparifons in the experience 
of fucceiiive dates of happinefs. In our future exigence, there 
may be always fomething beyond us to animate exertion j 
and this fomething obtained, new deiires may fucceed as the 
old are gratified. Thus we may keep on for ever and ever 
advancing from one degree of excellence and of blifs to another, 
in a perpetual and never ceating approximation to the un- 
clouded fun (hine of the glory of God. The ftate of the fpiri- 
tual man in heaven, of the mortal cloatheu" with immortality, 
cannot be fuppofed a ltateof torpid quiefcence but of increafed 
activity j a ftate in which defire mall never ftagnate and im- 
provement never end. 

Happy would it be for us, if we would confider the feveral 
degrees of pain and mifery which we meet with in this world, 
as relative to pleafure and happinefs, either in the life which 
now is, or in that which is to come. This would teach us to 
bear afflictions with patience, and to be cheerful when all looks 
difmal around us. It would keep hope freih and the fpirits 
gay. We mould reflect that the various forrows and troubles 
which we meet with in life (thofeonly excepted which are 
owing to our vices) are neceffary ingredients in our condition j 
and that in the difpenfations of providence, nifry often be- 
comes the {hortelt way to the temple of blifs. In this world, 
we begin our being, in a ftate of things in which there is a 
great mixture of affliction, and of which no fon of man eve.r 

C c 



( 336 ) 

this mortal life lefs chequered with uncertainty and 
misfortune, this (late of things would furnifh fuch 
ftrong arguments for, and fuch powerful perfuafions 
to frefent acquiefcence and unmingled JatisfaElion, as 
would make the mind too well contented, and the 
heart too much delighted with its prefent fituation. 
There would not be that longing after immortality, 
that bufy expectation of fomething to come after 
death, which there now is. Man rinding this world 
a ftation of eafe and reft, not oppreflfed with diffi- 
culties nor faddened with care, would take up his 
reft here. He would fay to his foul, " Soul ! take 

falls into the grave without experiencing his (hare. But when 
this life is coniidered as connected with, and preparatory to 
other happier modes and ftates of exigence, all, even its fe- 
verefl miferies, dwindle into infigniricance, and become lighter 
than air upon the balance. Thefe confiderations prove that 
the mifery which there is in the world,, viewed in the light in 
which 1 have placed it, inftead of being any argument againft, 
is one of the ftrongeft arguments for the divine benevolence; for 
the goodnefs of God muft be infinite, even as exerted towards 
the leait unit of intelligent nature, if he have fo arranged the 
economy of the univerfe, that every individual intelligent 
being is made fufceptible of an endless progression in 
happiness. That a created being cannot, like the one un- 
created God, enjoy infinite happinels, is a truth that will not 
be contefted. How then is fuch a being to be made moft 
happy ? Certainly not by being allotted to his greaielt degree 
of happinefs at once, and there kept liationary ; but, by being 
rendered progrcilive in blils, and lb progrcilive, that though 
ever tending to, he may never arrive at that point where blifs 
will no more inereafe. In this note I have attempted to give 
a plain and intel igible folution to many difficulties, which 
have often perplexed the moiaiift and the divine. 



( 38? ) 

thy full glut" of pleafure ; eat, drink, and be merry, 
for there is nothing; to come hereafter !" But the 
vexations and uncertainties of this prefent life do not 
permit this unclouded tranquillity of the mind, and 
this unruffled joy of the heart. Man is born to 
trouble ; and feeing no Jure refuge from forrow on 
this fide the grave, he naturally looks to one beyond 
it. Obferving virtue often diftrefTed and vice pros- 
perous, the wicked riding in triumph, and the righ- 
teous proftrate in the dud, and yet beholding amid 
all this apparent confufion, finking and irrefragable 
proofs of the moral government of the world, he can 
difcover no end to his perplexity, and no refolution 
to his doubts, but in the fuppofition of a future life. 
The prefent ftate of things, therefore, furnifhes ar- 
guments for a future life, in which the mind may 
reafonably acquiefce ; by which the incredulous may 
be Satisfied, and the forrowful confoled *. 



* The reader will obferve that, in this paffige, I am consider- 
ing the probabilities which natural reafon may difcover in 
favour of a future and happier life ; where good thall be lefs 
chequered with evil, pleafure lefs balanced with pain; where 
the wicked fball ceaff from troubling and the weary be at reft. 
But all the moil profound deductions of reafon on this impor- 
tant fubjeft, are very infrrior in ftrength toconvince, and in in- 
tereft to perfuade, to that palpable proof of it, which the refur- 
re6tion of Jefus affords ; and the probabilities in favour of the 
fadt of his refurrection, greatly exceed any probabilities which 
reafon can adduce in favour of a future ftate, when unaftifted 
by that light which the Chriftian revelation has fpread over 
the world. 

C C 2 



( 383 ) 

$5- In fending his Ton into the world, the exprefs 
image of his perlbn, the fchechinah of his prefence, 
and the reprcfentati ve of nib glory, God has diitini5r.lv, 
palpably, and incontrovertibly, manifefted the per- 
fection of his goodnefs. In Jefus we behold good- 
nefs which no argument can invalidate, and no faris 
or occurrences in his hulory can dimini h. Chrift, 
therefore, is the Divine Goodnefs, difplayed in a 
vifible and tangible model of peifcction. And as 
goodnefs is the elTential principle of morality, with- 
out which it is rotten and lifelefs ; fo the perfection 
of morality mut confift in the imitation of the cha- 
racter of Chrift, who is perfect goodnefs -, in whofc 
heart was no malice and no guile. 

56. That morality which confifts in the imitation 
of Chrift, in the practice of his virtues, and the ob~ 
fervance of his fayings, while it is more pleafing to 
God than all the fubtle (peculations of all the wife 
men of this world, has likewife a flronger tendency 
than any fyftem of morality, formed on any other 
model, or regulated by any other laws, can have to 
make us happy. Of the Chriftian virtues, while the 
principle forcibly inclines us to love our fellow-crea- 
tures, the exertion naturally inclines them to love 
us. It is not fufEcieat to object that the proud will 
trample on the humble, that the infolent will opprefs 
the meek, the vindictive the forgiving, and the hard- 
hearted the benevolent; for the practice of that pure 
morality which confifts in humility, meeknefs, for- 
givenefs, brotherly kindnefs, charity, muft, by the 



( &9 ) 

powerful operation of natural caufes, by the invifible, 
but in a great meafurc irrefillible agency of the com- 
mon fympathies of humanity, in a vail majority of 
inftances, occafion the warm and artleis reciproca- 
tions of efteem and love *. 

57. The Chriftian virtues, having no tendency to 
excite envy or fear, but tending to produce a ftate of 
the fenfations, totally oppofite to the experience of 
thole baleful paffions, pave the way for the intro- 
duction of all the kind fentiments into the heart. 
Where neither hate, nor envy, nor fear, have died 
their mildew on the bread, benevolence will eafily 
kindle its holy flame. Thofe amiable and inoffen- 
five qualities ; thofe ferene, unoftentatious, and in- 
terefting graces, the culture of which the Chriftian 
doctrine cherifhes and matures, and the practice of 

* There is nothing like what is commonly called philosophical 
reafoning in the gofpelj yet the rules of life there delivered are 
all philofophically juji ; and the more they are "analy fed into their 
elementary principles, and the more they are traced through all 
their ramifications and tendencies, through their near and their 
remote confequences, the more they will be found conformable 
to the moft elaborate abftra&ions of philofophy. By the phi- 
lofophy here mentioned, 1 do not mean fuch philofophy as that 
of Voltaire, Diderot, or Godwin ; bat that philofophy which is 
confecrated by the illuftrious names of Bacon, Locke, Clarke, 
Hartley, Butler, &c. Thefe men were true philofophers, and 
their writings are a fpaeious, and I truft a lafting refervoir of 
falubrious philofophy. The term philofophy has of late been 
greatly abufed 5 but let not therefore the thing itfelf be held 
in derifion. 



( 3$P ) 

which °u r Lord fo ftrcnuouflv recommended by the 
captivating eloquence of hisdifcouries, and the more 
eloquent captations of his example, by cleanfmg 
the affections from every ienfacion of ill-will towards 
others, muft operate, with no ordinary efficacy, tq 
extrude every fenfation of ill-will from the hearts of 
others towards us*, 

* The love of God is the only firm and lafting foundation of 
benevolence. The love of God is not like the principle of the 
general good, a cold abftraftion, but a warm reality. The fenfe 
of the Divine Prefence, as Bilhop Butler has moft ably taught 
us, may be realized, fixed in the mind, and embodied in the 
heart; and when it is thus brough', as it were, into contact 
with the thoughts and fenfations, who can doubt the falutary 
influence which it mutt exercife on the benevolent affections? 
Where be; evolence does not reft on this immutable principle, 
(the love of God,) it is furject to the moft capricious variations, 
liable to be chilled by ingratitude, and to be extinguished by 
perfecutioq. It is not, it cannot be fixed or permanent; it 
may fubfide into apathy, or be converted into hate; but the 
love of God gives it vigour and conftancy, breathing into it 
the fpirit to ac\ and producing confiftency in action. Ani- 
mated by love divine, cherifhed by its flame, and hallowed by 
its prefence, the benevolent principle lofes its frail and peri (li- 
able nature. Tt ftrikes root in the foul, and it bears fruit in the 
conduct. No blaft withers its leaves, and no ftorm (hakes its 
trunk. 

Hence, we fee the wifdom of our Lord in commanding us 
firft to love God and then to love mankind; thus making the 
religions principle the root of the benevolent, making that 
principle which prompts our adoration and binds our hearts to 
the Father of fpirits, give life and ftrength to the benevolent 
affections; which attach us to the intra ft of our fellow -crea- 
tures'; which pcrfuade us to minifter comlort to the wretched 
and relitf to the diflrefted. 



( 39* ) 

58. The genuine principles of Chriftianity* 
whether in their immediate operations, or their in- 

The love of God, particularly when affifted by thofe increafed 
motives to love him, which are furnifhed by revelation, re- 
freshes the benevolent affections with a fecret but conftant 
afpiration. Natural religion, or that theory of our intereft and 
our duty, which reafon forms from the light of nature, urges 
11s to love God as the author and preferver of our being; but 
revelation teaches us to love him, not only as the giver of life, 
but a deliverer from death j not only as the author of all the 
good things which we enjoy here, but of a glorious immortality 
which is referved for us hereafter. Revelation fhows us in a 
manner more clear and by arguments more convincing than 
unailifted reafon could fuggeft, that the regard which God has 
for man, is not confined to this ihort life, but extends through. 
all eternity. 

Without the pervading, the cherifhing, and preferving flame 
of theopathy, the benevolent affections foon expire. Hence the 
benevolence of an atheift, if, from fane happy imprejjions made 
on him in his infancy, tvhofe influence remains ivhen the caufe is 
forgotten, it be poj/iblefor an atheift to be benevolent, can be only 
an occasional emotion of goodnefs, in which the favage fpecu- 
lations of his reafon difappear in the fympathies of his huma- 
nity. But the benevolent principle itfelf, in the heart of an 
atheift, mufl want vigour and conftancy; one ill requited kind- 
nefs, or one fpark of enmity, will wafle its ftrength or fufpend 
its operations. The majority of atheifts, of whom, happily, 
there are not many in the world, are feldom warmed even by 
one glow of the benevolent principle ; their hearts are either one 
tranflent chill and uniform expanfe of apathy, or one torrid mafs 
of malicioufnefs. They are either totally infenfible to the mifery 
of others, or they delight in beholding, and glory in promoting 
it. Were the world governed by atheift rulers and legiilators 
for about a century, more than half the human fpecies would 
probably be exterminated by the end of it. 

C c 4 



( 39* ) 

direct influence, have a tendency to extinguifri hate, 
and to kindle love, and conh-queiuly to duiinifh 

let not Mr. Godwin, the terror-ttriking fceptick of the day, 
who has attempted to rear a ly item of benevoience on a mcta- 
phyiical abttraction, imagine that any fyltem which will effec- 
tually counteract the mtlevolent, and diffuie the benevolent 
fpirit among men, can be erected on an>' other principle than 
that which the Divine Found' r of Chriuianity recommended. 
Let Mr. G (tody (and, as a minitter of the gofpel, 1 mo ft affec- 
tionately exhort him to ftudy the motives to action, and the 
incitements to beneficence, which are to be found in the fimpie 
and incorrupt doctrine of Chrilt; let him confid^r the perlua- 
fions by which it prompts to the production of individual and 
general good ; and he will then difcover that the pealant of 
Galilee, who was not inftructed in the fubtleties of logic, or 
in the refinements of metaphyseal fpecnlation, in the art of 
obfeuring what is clear, or perplexing what is plain, was a 
greater philofopher than Helvetius, Voltaire, Diderot, Rouifeau, 
D'Alembert, Condorcet, or any of his favouiite French authors. 
In Mr. Godwin's St. Leon, 1 perceive, and I perceive with 
pleafure, traces of a difpohtion to return from the wilds of 
mctaph)fic» into the regions of common fenfe; and to retract 
thofe pernicious tenets which he once propagated with lo much 
induiiry and fo much zeal. God gnnt that the converfion of 
Mr. Godwin, which feems begun, may be happily tmithed! 
Ma) he look on Him, wholt religion he has pitted wi'h infults, 
whole name he hat> loaded with reproaches | May repentance 
touch his heart ! and may the angi 1 ot favour mini Iter peace to 
his troubled foul ! 

Refpecting the literary merits of Mr. Godwin's St. Leon, I am 
happy to coincide in opinion with Mils Seward of Lichfield^ a 
lady, whofe genius can furnith amufemem tor the idle, reflection 
for the ferious,and instruction for the wife ; whofe poetry unites 
delicacy of fentiment with vigour ot expreflion ; the hmplieity 
of nature with the polilh of art; a tafle fenfitive, difcrimina- 
tive, correct, with an imagination various, expanded, ancj 
fnblime. l 



( 393 ) 

xtiifery and to generate happinefs. The experience 
of oenevolence always gives an agreeable flow to the 
current of our fenfations ; whofe frefhnefs malevo- 
lence taints, and whofe ferenicy it difturbs. That 
difpofition of the foul, which belt fits us to commu- 
nicate happinefs to others, at the fame time beft 
prepares us for the perception of happinefs ourfelves. 
True benevolence, therefore, which mod favours the 
production of focial, mod favours the increafe even 
or fclfifh bills What tends to make the individual 
contribute largely to the happinefs of his feilow- 
creatures, will be found, when rightly underftood, 
molt inftrumental to his own. Hence, when the 
founder of Chriftianity gives us this rule of life, to 
love our neighbour as ourfelves, he delivers a precept, 
which, whenever it be generally acted upon, will be 
fo nd to contribute more to the folid enjoyment of 
him, who praclifes it, than any other more feififh 
mode of conduct, or more exclufive and narrow 
fcheme for obtaining happinefs. 

5q. The Chriftian morals, which in their begin- 
ning originate, and in the whole circumference of 
their action gravitate to this great principle, cc Then 
Jbalt love thy neighbour as thy f elf" or what, in its 
practical tendency, comes to the fame thing, " Thou 
Jbalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and all 
thy Joul*" are nicely adapted to produce not only 

* Matt. xxii. 36—30. 



( 394 ) 

individual but general good, to make every man ad- 
vance his own intereft and the intereft of his fpecies. 
Hence we fee the profound intelligence of Jefus, 
TheChrift; whohas exhibited in theChriftianfcheme, 
that comprehenfion of view, and that minutenefs of 
detail, that vaftnefs of de.fign in the whole, and that 
nicety of proportion in every part, to which we find 
many correfponding anal ^gics in the conftitution of 
the natural world j and which may well incline us to 
believe that He who made the ftars in the firmament 
above, and arranged this fair and beautiful order of 
things on the earth below, was likewife the provi- 
dential author of the Chriftian revelation. His 
wifdorn planned it, his power eftablifhed it, and his 
goodnefs will bring it to a happy confummation. 

60. That goodnefs of heart and life which the 
principles of Chriftianity, whenever they are atled 
upon> will invariably produce, muft tend, in all in- 
fiances, to promote the good of others ; and in the 
majority of inflances, it will be found, even in the 
prefent degenerate ftate of public morals, to be mod 
favourable to the increafe of our own individual fa- 
tisfa£tion and enjoyment. Goodnefs, which tends to 
diffufe happinefs, not only gives the individual a 
greater capacity for happinefs, but greatly multiplies 
the probabilities of his being happy. 

61. The principle of gratitude is natural to manj 
it is homogeneous with his frame and fhoots up fpon- 



( 39S ) 

tajieoufly in his foul -, and, ranch as may be faid 
about the rarenefs of the virtue, or the infrequency 
of the practice*, it will, I b lieve, be found in ninety, 
nine inftances out of an hundred, that men never re- 
ceive any benefits from others, without having fen- 
fations of gratitude excited in their biealls. 'I hefe 
fenfations may not indeed always ripen injro action; 
they may die away with the pleaiure which the be- 
nefit produces ■, but if they be always, or aimoft 
always felt, this fact alone is fufficient to prove that 
there is in the heart of man a natural tendency to gra- 
titude \. The fenfation of gratitude which is oica- 
fioned by any benefit received, is afTociated witn a 
certain pleafurable idea of him who conferred it; 
and this idea is thps brought into contact with the 
affections, and Jome dejire of remuneration is excited. 
Such a defire mud not be fuppofed not to be (dt, 
when it is not exprefted by words or indicated by 
any outward figns; for though when there is a fenle 
qf favours received impreiTcd upon the heart, it will 
ufually burfl trom the lips in praties, and acknowledge- 
ments, and.good withes £, yet the true feat of graci- 

* The complaint will be found mod common with tbofe, in 
uhofe difpohtion there is an acerbity. to I ich favours oi mian- 
thropy ; or who e.p S. more than a quid pro ^uo, a fair retribu- 
tio7i proportioned to the means ®fjhe indiyiuual 

f May 1 refer the reader to my Picture of Christian Philo- 
fophy, 3d edit. p. 105. 

| I do not mean the cant or mechanical acknowledgments of 
beggars and vagrants; but mankind in general, when they re- 
ceive favours, can feldom retrain irem the vocal expreffion of 



( 396 ) 

rude is in the affections, and that gratitude, is fome- 
times moft forcibly felt, which works in fecrei in the 
foul, but which the tongue want* eloquence to utter. 

62. Many are the caufes which cenfpire to prevent 
the pofnive remunerations of beneficence, and the 
active operations of gratitude; but there is a princi- 
ple in what Sir Mathew Hale calls the crafis of man, 
which gives birth to the fenfation, and which nothing 
can deltroy. It is interwoven with the phyfical or- 
ganization, and it is a condiment part of the moral 
economy of man. The alleviation of our wants, or 
the removal of our pains, the increafe of our happi- 
nefs, or the diminution of our mifery, mud necefla- 
rily caufe pleafurable emotions in the mind, and 
pleafurable fenfations in the heart \ and thefe plea- 
furable fenfations and emotions can feldom be un- 
connected with a kind difpoficion towards the author 
of them ; and what is gratitude but a kind difpofuion 
towards its object ? The fenfe of benefits conferred 
on us, does, in mod cafes, except where fome per- 
verfe afTociations of pride or envy interpofe, work 
as agreeably on the moral part of man, as food taken 
into the domach does on his phyfical conditution. 

63. True Ghriftian goodnefs, whether confidered 
in its pallive influence on the heart and as adbciated 
with meeknefs, humblenefs of mind, an unwilling- 

praife and love, of a confeioufnefs of hnppinefs imparted, and 
a reciprocal defi re of imparting happinefs, eveniohcn the bene- 
factor is not prefeht, and when thc\- can be no £<fjible temptation 
to make a J/ioiv of ' thank) 'ultnj's which is not felt. 



( 397 ) ' . 

nefs to offend, and a readinefs to be reconciled, or 
confidered in its active Rate, as roufing the vigorous 
exertions of beneficence, mud directly tend to in- 
creafc our own happinefs and the happinefs of 
others*. And whatever produces or aflifts in the 
production of happinefs, favours the growch of gra- 
titude. Gratitude feems, in its incipient (late, nothing 
more than a certain agreeable feeling of kindnefs 
towards its object; but, as its influence is fpread over 
the affections, it calls forth, as opportunity offers, 
the active reciprocations of beneficence. 

64, The Divine Founder of Chriftianity, whofe 
plain authoritative fayings, whether we confider their 
philofophical juftnefs, or their practical ufefulnefs, 
the accumulated wiidom of ages will never excel, 
was well acquainted with that tendency, which there 
is in the human heart, when not incruftcd by pride, 
by jealoufy, and prejudice, to abforb fenfations of 
gratitude, and in the human mind to call them into 
action ; and it is very obfervable, that he lays the 
greateft ftrefs on that morality, whole operations, 
manifefling our good- will towards others, do, by 
their natural influence on the moral organization of 

*■ What may be called, or what is often called the indirect ac- 
tion of moral caufes, is often ftronger than the dire6t. Thus 
the exertions of a charitable difpofition directly tend to the 
good of others ; but they probably always, though indirectly, 
and by a fort of re-action, do a greater good to onrfelves. He 
that hath pity upon the poor hndeth unto the Lord. The inference 
is plain ; but the confederation of this fubject in all its relations 
and bearings would lead me into too wide a field of difcuflion. 



( 398 ) 

man, naturally excite the good-will of others towards 
us. Thus the Chriftian graces, meeknefs, gentlenefs, 
forbearance, humblenefs of mind, complacency of 
manners *, and love unfeigned, which diffufe a plea- 
furable influence over the whole fphere of their 
agency, do tend, in mofl in/lances, to produce a prefent 
remuneration to the individual, 

6$. If the Chriftian virtues will feldom be found, 
in refpect even to the production of prefent happi- 
nefs, not to yield an ample compenfation to thofe 
who cukivate them, their cultivation mud be highly 
neceflary as a means of increafmg our prefent good ; 
(for nothing elfe will be found to yield fenfations fo 
pleafurable or blifs fo exquifuej) but mod important 
muft it be to us to cherifh their growth and to en- 
courage their expanfion, when we confider their in- 
timate connection with our futuie glory and happi- 
nefs in that world, of which every moment that glides 
away is carrying us nearer to the confines. 

« 

* In the fermon on the mount all thofe qualities are recom- 
mended which contiitute true politenefs; that peaceablenefs 
and ferenitv, and unarTe&ed mildnefs of behaviour, which pre- 
vents ftrife and conciliates affection. The more man becomes 
civilized, the more he will fee the neceffity of cultivating, and 
the more he will cultivate the patiive but truly magnanimous 
qualities by which our Lord was fo eminently diftiiujuifhed, 
and by which he enjoined his followers to labour to attain dif- 
tin&ioo. We mull learn of him, who was meek and lowlv in 
heart, if we wiih to hnd red to our fouls; if we with to lafte or 
to communicate unmingled iatisfa&ion. 



C 399 ) 

66, Every individual ad of obedience to Che 
Chriftian precepts has probably fome influence on 
our happinefs; but individual acts of obedience, 
(trengthened into habits of rjghteoufnefs, muft pro- 
mote our happinefs in a high degree here, and in the 
higher! degree hereafter. As our funefs for the bills 
of another life will be proportioned to the goodnefs 
which we manifcft in mind and heart, in thought, in 
word, and deed, in the life which now is, our capa- 
city for future enjoyment mud be greater the more 
perfect our habits of obedience have been, or the 
fewer tranfgreffions we have committed, by which 
their continuity has been broken and their operations 
interrupted. 

67. In another life we fhall probably have a 
nearer view of the divine perfections 5 but it is only 
that goodnefs which is an approximation to the na- 
ture of God, that can enable us to enjoy his prefence, 
or to behold him as he is. " Without holinefs no 
man (hail fee the Lord." God is loves he is good- 
nefs abfolute and perfect 5 and goodnefs is the only 
object of love,; but nothing but goodnefs can really 
love goodnefs*. In proportion as a man grows in 
goodnefs the love of God will expand within his foul ; 
and the more God is loved, the more beneficent will 
the individual become. 

* For this reafon, a malevolent man cannot love God ; and 
if ever he do love him, he muft ceafe to be malevolent, for ma- 
levolence and the love of God are two fenfations that can never 



( 4°^ ) 

6ft. Tn the perfou and character of Jefus of Na- 
zareth we behold the divine goodnef>, as it were, in 
a boJi y fhape; and therefore to love G >d with all 
our heart and all our foul, is to endeavour wit ! i all 
our heart and all our foul to iirrtate the conduct of 
his earthly reprefentative, or, in other words, to put 
on the Lord Jefus, This is that morality, which is 
the fum and fubftance of Chriftianity, and which 
alone can recommend us to the favour of God, be- 
caufe it alone can generate a conduct agreeable to 
his will. 

69. Let u< con fider that in the favour of God 
our only true happinels confiits; and that every in- 
di-idual tranfg Hi m is iome deduction from that 
portion of his favour, which we mould otherwife 
enjoy, and that if individual tranfgrehVns be re- 
peated till they harden into habits of fin, our cafe is 
defperace. If we die in hah;ts of unrighteoufnefc, 
we die in a flate of difpleafme with God ; and, after 
death, we (hall be aliens .rorn hispreience, and Gran- 
gers in the outer darknejs. 

exift m the fame hearty at the fame t!we> Our Lord was well ac- 
quainted with this truth, and there feems to have been a moft 
powerful perfuafioh of its importance on the heart of the diiciple 
whom he ioved ; for throughout the firft epitile of fbhn, there 
is conftant and earned endeavour to impreis it on thole whom 
headdreifed. 

THE END. 

T. Bfci":ry, Printer, Eolt Court, Fleet Street. 



( 4° J ) 



ADDITIONS. 

To come after " homicidia," p. 5, L 23, note. 

" Haec eft, piorum confolatio," faid they, 
" non ilia pecca fortiter, fed crede fortius ; et 
nihil tibi nocebunt centum homicidia et mille 
ftupra." " Peccata ilia, qualia Davidis, id eft 
homicidia et adulteria elect! s non imputari verba 
funt Marlorati. Dicitis quidem," fays Grotius, 
addrefTing the Calviniftic champions of religious 
difcord, " in juftificatis omnibus pcenitentiam 
femper fequi : quod ego verum non arbitror. 
Et deinde quae eft ilia pcenitentia ? vivere at 
lubet : deinde inftante morte dicere Miniftro, 
Nollem factum, et credo juftitiam Chrifti mihi 
imputari, idque verum eiTe, quia id credo. Cum 
hoc viatico ftatim ille in ccelum evolat : deque eo 
dubitare Stygise eft incredulitatis." Vid. Grot, 
torn. III. 676. 

Additions to the note printed p. 25(3. 

On the doctrine of the Holy Trinity the reader 
will, I think, derive both inftruction and delight 
from the following pafTages in the works of Jeremy 
Taylor; and which fhow at once the depth of 
his refearch, and the folidity of his judgment. 
" As the doctrine of the Holy Trinity is fet down 

D d 



( 4°2 ) 

in fcnpture, and in the Apoftles creeds I know- 
no difficulties it hath ; what it hath met withal 
fince, proceeds from the too curious handling of 
that which we cannot nnderfland. The lchool- 
men have fo pried into this fee ret, and have fo 
confounded themfclves and the articles, that they 
have made it too unintelligible, inexplicable, in- 
defenfible in all their minuits and particularities ; 
and it is too iadly apparent in the arguments 
of the AntitrinitarianS) whofe foplufms againft the 
article itfelf, although they are moft eafily an- 
fwercd, yet as they bring them againft the 
mhmtia and impertinences of the fchool, they 
are not fo eafily to be avoided. Concerning 
Gcd we know but very few things ; and con- 
cerning the myjterious Trinity that which is re- 
vealed is extremely little ; audit is general, with- 
out defcending to particulars : and the difficulty 
of the feeming arguments againft that, being 
taken from our philofophy, and the common 
manner of fpcaking, cannot be apportioned and 
fitted to fo great a fecret ; neither can that at all 
be meafurcd by any thing here below. When 
the church, for the underiianding of this fecret 
of the Holy Trinity, hath taken words from 
metaphyseal learning, as ferfon, hypoftufis, confub- 
Jiantidliiy, o^osuio:, and fuch like, the words of 
themfclves were apt to change their iignifica'ion, 
and to put on the fenfe of the prefent fchook 
But the church was forced to ufe fuch words as 



( 403 ) 

Hie had, the higheft, the neareft, the moil fepa- 
rate and myfterious. But when fhe frill kept 
thefe words to the fame myftery, the words 
fwelled or altered in their fenfe ; and were ex- 
acted according to what they did lignify among 
men in their low notices ; this begat difficulty in 
the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. For better 
words fhe had none, and all that which they did 
lignify in our philofophy could not be applied to 
this myftery ; and therefore we have found diffi- 
culty ; and fhall for ever, till, in this article, the 
church returns to her ancient limplicity of ex- 
preffion." Taylor's Polem. Difc. third edition, 
p. 242, 243. " He that goes about to fpeak of 
and to underftand the myfterious Trinity, and 
does it by words and names of man's invention, 
or by fuch which lignify contingently, if he 
reckons this myftery by the nlythology of num- 
bers, by the cabala of letters, by the diftinclions 
of the fchool, and by the weak inventions of dif- 
puting people -, if he only talks of effences and 
exiftences, hypoflafes and personalities, diftinc- 
tions without difference, and priority in cocqua- 
lities, and unity in pluralities, and of fuperior 
predicates of no larger extent than the inferior 
fubjecls, he may amufe himfelf, and find his 
underftanding will be like St. Peter's upon the 
mount of Tabor at the Transfiguration : he may 
build three tabernacles in his head, and talk 
fomcthing he knows not what. But the good 



(* 404 ) 

man, that feels the paver of the i r. and lie to 
whom the Son is become wifdom> right < on fnefs, 
J ancliji cation, and redemption ; lie in zvhqfe heart 
the love of the Spirit of God is fpread, to whom 
God hath communicated the Holy Ghojl, the Com- 
forter -, this man, though he understands nothing 
of that which is unintelligible, yet he only under- 
stands the myfterioufnefs of the Holy Trinity. 
No man can be convinced well and wifely of the 
Article of the Holy, Blejfed, and Undivided Trinity, 
but he that feels the mightinefs of the Father 
begetting him to a new life, the wifdom of the 
Son huildhtg him up in a mojl holy faith, and the 
love of the Spirit of God, making him to become 
like unto God." Taylor's Suppl. Scrm. p. 91. 
Of this laft pafTage I truft I may affert, without 
exaggeration, that he is deftitnte of piety who is 
not imprefTed by its devoutnefs; and of taflc, who 
is not ravifhed with its eloquence. 



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